Rating: 
Summary: wildly imaginative and extremely effective
Review: mr. anderson is one of the finest directors of our time & magnolia is another jewel in his gold crown. in a time where nothing is what it seems and everything remains a complete mystery, the film magnolia couldn't be anymore necessary. given the transformational nature of the film industry, this should be the age of aquarius for recognizing excellent independent cinema boasting major hollywood talent. mr. anderson has weaved together a unique tapestry of people's lives which you can't help but care about when you realize how similiar our lives actually are to these fictional ones on the screen. magnolia's timeless themes to name a few might be loneliness, sympathy, and perhaps even occasional guilt here and there. universal themes make this masterpiece totally unforgettable. i should also mention the ending almost seems biblical and will not give away anymore details here. you are just going to have to see this for yourself. although this may be only small potatoes at best in comparison to the great gifts magnolia has already in store for us, aimee mann boasts some terrific new songs here which could provide hours of listening pleasure while driving to work or cleaning up your house. if you are interested in great modern cinema, look no further than the works of mr. anderson. he is the future of modern cinema. MY HAT IS OFF TO YOU MR. ANDERSON FOR BOTH BOOGIE NIGHTS AND MAGNOLIA !!!
Rating:
Summary: But it DID happen
Review: This is a film about the always incomprehensible human condition. It shows what we do to ourselves and to each other for the sake of love, money, fame, or fear. In this film, people from all walks of life break down and come face-to-face with their own personal fears and demons, despite the armor they've erected for themselves. All of the characters are dragged through hell before the rays of hope begin to emerge before the unexpected storm at the movie's climax. The film's script was written inspired by lyrics written by Aimee Mann who provides the film's poignant soundtrack. The songs are excellent on their own, but married to the movie's sweep and imagery, it's nothing less than a suicide watch for these poor folks. But the human condition, although puzzling at times, proves resilient. There isn't a clean-cut Hollywood happy ending...but there is forgiveness, redemption, compassion, and hope. That's all that any ONE of us can hope for as make our own way through life.
Rating:
Summary: Unable to Think of TitleCONTAINS SPOILERS--WATCH MOVIE FIRST
Review: What's interesting about "Magnolia" is the fact that any one of its many stories coild have been an interesting film by itself. The characters are so well depicted that you wonder what happens to them after the conclusion (my measure for determining whether a movie has done a good job establishing its characters). Of course, they all have to share this with each other, in a film that contains some of the most honest and raw outbursts of emotion that I have ever seen in a movie. Most of its characters have some kind of breakdown or another--the pressures of life are too much too handle, and they turn to drugs, or anger, or whatever, to divert themselves from their problems. All this makes for some pretty sad people, drifting through life haphhazardly.
Except for Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) and Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who are the most sympathetic characters in the movie. Phil is a nurse looking after Earle Partridge (Jason Robards), a television producer bedridden with cancer. Earle's son, Frank Mackey (Tom Cruise) makes chauvinistic infomercials entitled "Seduce and Destroy". Frank hates Earle for leaving him and his mother alone when he is a child. He comes undone in an interview with a journalist who hammers him with intensely personal questions. Earle's wife, Linda (Julianne Moore), who married him for the money but who now loves him and is hellbent on helping him, takes prescription drugs to ease her pain. Earle has a show called "What do Kids Know", hosted by Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) and which stars a child whizkid, Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman). Jimmy is also suffering from cancer, and is intensely unhappy, as opposed to his cheerful on-air persona (doesn't it seem like all game show hosts are too cheerful?). His daughter, Cynthia (Felicity Huffman), is on drugs and plays her music way too loud. The neighbors complain, and Jim comes to check and instantly falls in love with her. Jim realizes that Cynthia has problems and wants to save her (the theme of salvation is pervasive throughout the film). And, finally, there is a former star of "What Do Kids Know" who everybody calls Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy). He has just been fired from his job in a department store and needs money for braces.
These are not happy people (for the most part). The film's writer and director, Paul Thomas Anderson (he of "Boogie Nights" fame) travels from story to story effortlessy. All the action takes place in a single day in the San Fernando Valley. Often events happen at the same time. There are sequences of the movie where the same musical score plays for almost twenty minutes, while Anderson cuts from story to story-- often, even, from image to image.
"Magnolia" is such an ambitious and emotionally brutal film that it's hard not to respect it for trying--even if you disagree with the film's quality. This was one of the movies released in late 1999 that were more creative and original than anything that had come before. The movie is one of those love-hate kind of deals. Most of the hate comes from the last half-hour of the film, in which a downpour of frogs fall from the sky. You read that right. That anyone had the audacity to even think of such a development is hard to believe. It suggests divine intervention in the lives of its players. What seemed like a human drama has become much more.
The movie is much interested in coincidence and chance--as shown in the prologue, narrated by Ricky Jay (who also shows up in the film), which tells of three very peculiar circumstances throughout the twentieth century. One of them is shot with an old, hand-cranked, Pathe camera. Another includes a replay of the scene, complete with markers that are used in football replays which detail the movement of the character. The strangeness of the introduction prepares us for the shocking conclusion.
I loved this movie--it feels so real and yet is so original and so skillfully navigated that it feels less like a movie than a complete experience, or a journey. It contains the grand sweep of an epic. It sees hope at the end--it doesn't relegate its morose characters to their own bleak destinies that they were creating for themselves. Chance intervened--or maybe even God, the film suggests. The movie's final message may be just this--stuff happens.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Unadulerated Agony
Review: A year has passed since I saw Magnolia on DVD, and yet I still harken back on it, remembering how much I utterly despised it. The shame of Magnolia is that it is clearly a film where the director had full control, and yet he goes so far overboard that you worry no studio will ever trust a director on his or her own ever again.I loathe Magnolia. Short of Caligula it could be the single worst film ever made, and that's saying an awful lot. Why is it so terrible? Let's list the reasons: 1) Everyone in the film is either insane, miserable, dying, or some combination thereof. While this is certainly not a crime, it is a crime when the characters fail to be interesting in any way. Apart from the characters played by John C. Reilly (who gives a good performance) and Philip Seymour Hoffman, none of the characters evoke any sympathy from the audience. Most deserve their misery. 2) The introduction of Magnolia is brilliant. It documents stories of amazing coincidence that have occurred in real life, and then tries to establish freak coincidence as the theme of the film. The film doesn't even come close to fulfilling this. Characters are vaguely connected, but with none of the panache of films like Short Cuts and Pulp Fiction. The film is secretly a mess. Characters act without any rhyme or reason. They meet because the plot forces them to. They're related because the film wants to amplify each characters' problems. None of it works. 3) The film's ending is so utterly vain in trying to tell you how biblically important the film is, when all it really is really is a device to end the film because PT Anderson clearly couldn't pull any of it together at the finale. No issues are resolved. No character has undergone any kind of important shift. The ending is abrupt, fantastical, and ultimately stupid. 4) The characters played by Julianne Moore, Melora Walters, and Tom Cruise are all so grating, so self-involved and irritating that you root for the death more than their salvation. Particularly Julianne Moore's character, who's such a worthless shrew it almost makes you pine for the friendliness of Jar Jar Binks. 5) The soundtrack of Aimee Mann songs are very good songs on their own. But in this film they're so earnest, so incredibly serious, that they practically suffocate the audience. There's no levity at any moment in the film, and at over three hours, it makes viewing the whole film in its entirely an impossible task. 6) The film has no basis in reality. A woman does at least $10,000 worth of cocaine every two seconds and manages somehow to be able to go out on a date with a POLICE OFFICER. Tom Cruise plays a sexual motivational speaker. Has anyone ever done this? Has anyone ever been successful at this? With a ponytail no less? 7) Anderson throws in every "issue" he can he to give the film more dramatic heft. It's like a bad Party of Five episode: sex, drugs, booze, pills, incest, death, divorce, cancer. You're shocked he hasn't tossed in a leper by the end for the sake of it. 8) Related to the above, the film has so sense of dramatic subtlety. Important character traits have to be spelled out in huge capital letters. Tom Cruise's character is SECRETLY INSECURE. Melora Walters' character is an ADDICT. Nothing is hinted at. It's stuck right in your face with all the grace of George Wendt figure skating. 9) The film is endless. Three hours have never felt so long. It makes you yearn for the dentists' chair. 10) The film is astonishly self-important and arrogant. If you need any evidence, you needn't look any further than the look of disgust on PT Anderson's face when his film failed to win a best Screenplay Oscar. ...
Rating:
Summary: Magnolia is great, DVD is awesome!
Review: The Magnolia DVD is a perfect reminder of why this format is incredibly better than VHS. Seeing this film on VHS and DVD, the difference is immeasurable. The image is a million times sharper, the sound is crisper, and the wide screen expansion adds a depth and fluidity to the images that this film needs to effectively tell its story (a need that might not exist with most films, but is a necessity with Magnolia). One of the many strokes of genius of Magnolia is PTA's command of the camera, and when the images are at its optimum quality, the story flows better and one can appreciate aspects of the film that were lost on VHS. For instance, the texture and sound of the frogs as they hit the windshields, and the POV shot of the frog as it falls down from the sky into Jimmy Gator's window warrants a new appreciation for this film, as one can realize how truly innovative PTA's visual expertise is. Apart from the visual enhancement, the second disc comes loaded with special features ranging from hilarious outtakes (in the color bars section), the Frank Mackey infomercial, a deleted section of the Frank Mackey seminar (which by itself could be a brilliant short film), about 6 different trailers, and a making-of documentary by Mark Rance, which covers EVERYTHING about Magnolia (it's actually maybe too long) from pre-production to shooting, post production, the premiere, the Berlin festival, and the animated PTA goofing off with his always compelling girlfriend, Fiona Apple. Magnolia is a great DVD, fans of the film in its theatical or VHS format, will love this, and people like myself who saw it and had mixed feelings about it will be hooked. I love Magnolia!
Rating:
Summary: Magnolia, the perfect description of human encounters
Review: Magnolia is a urban collision of lifes, presenting extraordinary facts many people has told that this movie isn't realistic at all, but I have to say that the prologue speak for itself, many of this things really happen and if you are emphatic enough you will just love this movie. 3 hours of drama, fun and mixed emotions. Tom Cruise learned how to act, everyone on this movie is great. The DVD version has a complete documentary of the making of the movie, not a usual one, every shot is on handycam and it really gets you in the production and into specific details, technical and story stuff, so if you are interested in that kind of stuff that's great. Has some secret goofs, music video of aimme (great video). BUY IT NOW!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Just hearing a movie is three hours inspires gasps in most of world. How can anyone stay in a seat for three hours? Well, just try. Magnolia is such a detailed and fragile tale that seems like it will explode at any moment. Each character is so delicate that you feel like they might get cruched under their own emotions. Then, when the emotions are highest, that happens. It's so random and frightening it just works. Jon Brion's haunting score just adds to the atmosphere.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow...Yawn..Ho Hum
Review: This film is an excruciating example of the self-important indulgence that is a disease affecting so many current films. Take a writer/director with some good ideas, a good ear for dialogue and give them A-list actors and millions of dollars...you end up with three hours of 'Look at me, aren't I just wonderful!'.
Julianne Moore's performace is lost in the contant spewing of the f-word, and all other performances lose their power by letting the actors go on and on. Yeah, we got the point and felt the power TEN LINES AGO.
This one is a pass. If you want to a see great film on people's lives crossing over and again on one day, get Nashville.
Rating:
Summary: indulgent melodrama needing some heart
Review: There's no shortage of superb actors in fascinating situations and all in the hands of director-genius anderson...so why did this movie leave me so bored? Because it feels like melodramatic junkfood -- lots of emotion with little real heart or understanding. We don't really get to know any of the characters or care about them. The viewer is simply transported rocket-speed from one crisis to another, each of which is presented with feverish emotion. There's no silence or insight to enable the viewer to better appreciate the chaos onscreen. At least the tom cruise character is so over-the-top that he's fun to watch. Way too self indulgent for anyone out of high-school. give pt anderson credit for going for a grand slam here (and many feel he got it), but in my opinion he struck out.
Rating:
Summary: Don't listen to the hype
Review: I thought I had missed an Oscar-contender when I didn't catch this one at the theater, so this is one I rented soon after it came out on DVD/video. I'm glad I didn't waste the money. I can't understand the appeal of this movie. Although there are a few promising stories going on, none receive enough attention to hold my interest. Granted, they are tied up better in the end than I expected, but that doesn't save it. Instead of a film, Magnolia is more like a mini-series or soap opera condensed into one sitting - not just in its plot schizophrenia, either, but character development. For example, most guys are portrayed as jerks but you are supposed to feel sorry for them anyway. There is a lot of gratuitousness. Whether in Tom Cruise's speech (the role I'm sure he has been dying to play for years) or the infamous raining of frogs, it goes over the top to the point of absurdity. Some might find it as an attempt at dark comedy, but it falls short in my book. The acting is what saves it from a one star rating. They do try to work with what they have. I'm sure no one would have noticed Magnolia at all if it hadn't been for an above-average cast. But I for one am glad it's over with, and I don't plan on seeing it again.
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