Magnolia, some thoughts

[Frank TJ Mackey]

There are a few older OOT threads on this film but they didn't appear to amount to much.

I just saw this for the first time last week (guess I had been deterred by the 3:10 running time).

Overall I thought it was excellent. I haven't seen Punch Drunk Love (which I have been recommended), but I thought Boogie Nights, while not a great movie, had some very interesting film-type stuff going on that PTA incorporated. Magnolia seems to have it all.

I have some mixed feelings on the first opening sequence, where 3 incidents of "chance" are introduced in rapid fashion. I find the narrator's voice to be boring and a turn-off, but it's a very good way to begin a film like this on the whole. Gets the viewer thinking and whatnot. The cuts are well done, especially in the diver tale; PTA's flashes from the water to the casino to the hotel room are great.

After that, Aimee Mann's cover of "One" clicks in and the movie explodes, with the song continuing throughout the entire introductory piece. This really gripped me, again w/ some expert cutting away, nearly all of the chief plotlines were introduced in concise, yet understandable, fashion.

The actors in the film were fabulous. Baker Hall was excellent and of course Cruise was probably at the best he's ever been. I was not a huge fan of Jason Robards (Partridge), but PSH made up for any downpoints in those scenes. Melora Walters was AWESOME. Each scene she was in with John C. Reilly was really great stuff.

The score and the soundtrack are both topnotch. The film is almost like a musical or an opera at many points. The joint singing of "Wise Up" near the end seems a bit cliche when you first see it, but I think it is one of the best parts. Magnolia has a few sweeping crescendo-type orchestral backgrounds that litter its scenes; there is one moment where Stanley is getting indignant at the game show and it cuts to Cruise shaking furiously in front of his father that is excellently complemented by the score. I'm a huge fan of the slowish ending as well, w/ Melora Walters staring at John C. Reilly for a few minutes as Aimee Mann's "Save Me" gets heavier and more layered, until she finally looks and smiles at the camera, guitars thrash, and the credits role.

One other thing I noted here is the evil (dark) light under which the game show is portrayed, similar to the one in Requiem for a Dream. Interesting.

The small rapping black child could've easily been excluded, however. I don't think he added anything.

My favorite scenes in the film are the following:

- Julianne Moore's building anger in the pharmacy. Her look and the camera's switching back and forth between her eyes, the clerk, and the pharamacist are both great. The inevitable explosion is amusing.

- William H. Macy's entrance into the bar and the subsequent time at the table, with Supertramp pumping in from the beginning. The camera angle on Macy at the table, and the awkward homosexuality of the whole thing is something I haven't really seen filmed in that way before.

- From the time when John C. Reilly exits his car in the rain until he asks Walters out is all great. Granted, it's split up and probably takes about an hour to conclude, but the pauses in the dialogue and her innocence is really something to behold.

Overall, amazing film. I could understand how it turns some people away, but to me there were so many things going for it. PTA's "DePalma-esque" (is this right? haven't seen a DePalma movie in awhile) way of panning the camera from one story to another is really amazing.

4.7/5 if I had to grade it.