Magnolia Review + One Sentence Reviews of the Week

Magnolia
Release Date: January 7, 2000 (USA)
Written and Directed: Paul Thomas Anderson (Oscar Nominated)
Original Songs by: Aimee Mann (Oscar Nominated)

I am a fan of great movies that I have not yet seen. There is nothing I love more than watching a highly praised movie that has been out for a long time, but I have somehow missed out on. Magnolia was suggested to me by a friend after discussing how excited I was about Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film There Will Be Blood. I knew nothing about Magnolia going in besides that it has multiple story threads and that Tom Cruise got nominated for an Oscar for his role in it. I was surprised by how little I had heard of this movie, a movie of this caliber not being nominated for best picture seems criminal, but just look at Children of Men. I am not going to lay out the plot of Magnolia if only because it would take much more time than I am willing to give, but also because watching the plot unfold is the most interesting part of the film.

We have 7 main stories with 8 main characters. A police officer(John C. Reilly); a game show host (Philip Baker Hall); a sexual seminar host(Tom Cruise); a hopeful and brilliant game show contestant(Jeremy Blackman); a depressed drug addict(Melora Waters); a washed up game show contestant(William H. Macy); an old dying producer(Jason Robards); the producers male nurse(Philip Seymour Hoffman); and the producers young and depressed wife(Julianne Moore). Most movies with multiple story threads all build up to an event that connects every story together into one point. Paul Thomas Anderson knows we are expecting this and almost kind of taunts us throughout the movie, keeps us guessing on who is related to who. I will warn you now that the end event that puts every character through the same experience is nothing like anything I have ever seen in a serious movie. I mean its hard to compare the end event of Magnolia to the more conventional attempts at this type of movie like Babel or the best picture winning Crash.

Just about every performance is top notch, with Tom Cruise doing the best, essentially switching emotion on a cue. It is nice to see actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman before they became superstars, he shows his ability in this movie very well. John C. Reilly is essentially the straight man of the film and is the character we tend to feel the most sorry for and connect to. His story seems the most important to the audience even though it is rather inconsequential. The music by Aimee Mann is great, songs like the Oscar nominated "Save Me" to close out the film or "Wise Up" performed by the cast in what essentially serves as an intermission; either way both are great songs that now have a resting place on my iPod play-list. Magnolia has had a surprising amount of influence on films that are today considered best picture caliber, Magnolia not only beats these films in quality, it also manages to be the most epic and important of all of them. There is no underlying message about race or politics, it is just a movie about people, things that happen everyday. It is wonderful.

10/10

One Sentence Reviews of things I experienced this week:

Juno (2nd time)
Even Better. - 9.8/10

Eating at Five Guys
I could get grease anywhere, this was better than McDonald's but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. - 7/10

Watching the Zelda4in48 webcast all weekend
What started as an attempt to play all 4 3D Zelda games in 48 hours(they failed) turned into a hugely popular webcast that went on to earn over $1000 for the gamer charity Child's Play. 10/10