Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, a story about emotional and physical cancer
Review: Paul Thomas Anderson has proved to us with boogie nights that he was a talented director. Now, with magnolia, he proves not only that he is a talented director but a brilliant story teller and an emotional artist. Those who say the film was boring or had no point, obviously missed the point, and were too close minded to see it. the film is beauty, and art, at its best. i recommend this film to anyone who has any taist what so ever. thank you mr anderson for another masterpiece
Rating:
Summary: The best film ever?
Review: This film is a work of art. Career best performances from Cruise, Moor and the rest of the Boggie Nights cast. Magnificent soundtrack. Perfect direction and the most suprising plot twist ever! What more can i say but see this film, you won't be disapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: No more "freebies".
Review: Apparently unable to simply limn his themes within the narrative, Mr. Anderson feels he has to subject us, right off the bat, to a 10-minute filmic lecture on the capriciousness and randomness of life, using not one, not two, but THREE mini-examples to get his point across. This is equivalent to the Middle Ages practice of meting out judgement; e.g., after hanging, the executioners commence drawing you, quartering you, and decorating an important place like London Bridge with your body parts. Not content to merely show us what his thematic concerns are, Anderson must TELL us what they are, and in a most metafictive way. Since the Post-Modern movement, such techniques are commonly mistaken for "genius".As we're introduced to the characters, it's extremely hard to follow what's going on, because Mr. Anderson insists on drowning out the dialogue in a seven-minute (! ) rendition of "One is the Loneliest Number" by Aimee Mann, as well as employing his camera like a big water-gun, aiming it at his characters rather than filming them. The camera swoops in, then is yanked away. In other words, bring your Excedrin. Mr. Anderson unfortunately apes some of Martin Scorsese's worst excesses: the whiplash camera and pyrotechnical editing illustrates the unsatisfactoriness of the imitative form, if nothing else. Since most film students are told that Scorsese is such a scary genius, they go on to make films like his stylistically. Music videos haven't helped matters, either. Mr. Anderson is clearly our first "Gen-X" director who aspires to some ethereal form of Wellesian greatness; let's hope that, in the future, he agonizes more about what the film DOES than what it LOOKS like. If you buy the ending of the movie, then you've bought the movie, so to speak. Without giving it away, let me say that under a flimsy veneer of illustrating his theme, he attempts to create The Most Shocking Scene in Film, Ever. This is typical of Mr. Anderson's style, generally: in the movie, we have the Slimiest Misogynist Ever, the Nicest Cop Ever (he cries when he misplaces his gun! ), the Most Guilt-Ridden Trophy Wife Ever, the Most Regret-Ridden Dying Old Man Ever . . . ad nauseum. These personages hover at the twilight zone of histrionics -- they're not well-rounded creations. The poor actors can do no better than weep, snarl, twitch, and, generally speaking, scream. Other reviewers wished Anderson had pruned some of these characters and focused on the parallel Child Genius stories -- gee whiz, I personally thought that one Child Genius was certainly (and scarcely compelling) enough. TWO? Hmmm. . . . By the way, Anderson's preoccupations with adultery and coke-use suggest a worldview formed by a sheltered upbringing . . . but that's strictly my opinion. I mean, adultery and cocaine are simply no longer cutting-edge to me, at least. In other words? Mr. Anderson has, I think, used up his "freebie". Considering the financial failure of "Magnolia", I'm pretty sure I'm right. For his next feature, he can expect a stern cadre of editing directors from the studio with the splicer purring.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long. This movie is just TOO LONG!
Review: Well, I seem to be part of a very small minority of people who hated this film. Is that because I didn't understand it? Yeah! You bet your bottom dollar I didn't! This film left me feeling battered and bruised, physically sick in fact. To me it was just 3 hours of nasty, ugly people, stomping about and shouting at each other. I don't like films that make me feel that I, and the rest of the audience, are there simply as a sounding board for the rantings hateful people trying to sort themselves out. For heaven's sake let these characters sort their problems out on their own time! And worst of all is the length of this film. This film is a perfect example of bloat in modern films. With the adverts and trailers you'll be in the theatre for nearly 4 hours if you manage to sit through to the end. Why do today's directors think people want to sit in a movie theatre for that long? There are one or two exceptional films that justify their long running times, but most of todays films fail to justify their length. I gave this film 2 stars rather than 1 because, as much as I hate it, this film is obviously a quality affair with top notch actors. However I was completely unmoved by the sheer vileness of all the characters involved.
Rating:
Summary: "'tis beauty truly blent..."
Review: I don't know if I spelled "blent" right, but the point still holds. It is a movie full of beauty. The heartbreaking, glorious, horrendous message of wonder kid sitting in the library, the rain of frogs shadowing his iconoclastic face, surrounded by his own kind martyred everywhere, the question "why" palpable in the blue-tinted air...That is what I took away most from Magnolia. What do kids know? The amazing power of the showdown between the hero, the small quiz whiz desperate and shamed and finally empowered by the greater desperation of the entire film and the old, crabbed, desperately sick gameshow host versus the studio audience and greater life in general... And the fleeting, desperate kiss between the cop and the coke addict, and the truth of phrophecy by the drunken and the desperate, and the black kid and his rap... Just all of it. I can't mention all of it; it made me cry and hold my breath and cry again from the desperate poignancy of it--indeed, the desperation of it, because we've all been there, and we all want to know that life remains despite what the universe throws at us. This film is beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: Wow.
Review: I actually went to see Reindeer Games and was half an hour late, so I went to Magnolia instead. The first thirty minutes were the most exciting thing I've seen on film in a couple of years. the next thirty were outstanding. The next 45, on the slow side. And just when I was thinking, well, the first half hour was worth the price of admission. Then, all of a sudden, the last half hour or so takes off like a rocket. This is a terrific movie: intelligent, provocative, beautifully-crafted, moving, witty, ambitious, and just pretentious enough. I'm going to see it again, just to see what I missed. Lots of talk at the office about this one.
Rating:
Summary: Otherwise than forgive or not
Review: How we can forgive , what and how far? This maybe one of the last question of the philosophers, and the religious sages/thinkers. In our world today, 'everyone' means everyone in the world, not just in our community. Everyone has his/her own rules, methods and ways formed by their own profits. Money, Fame, or maybe love? are the most important items for happy life, not a real , but jointly imagined happiness. Some of them feel what they are here and now are unacceptable, and believe the heaven is the place on another earth, and Happiness is in the hand of others because they require anything but their own. Some of them want to stay here and now because it is the best of their life ever, and future is untrustable. Every one has his own here-and-now. When we see our own interests, there must be something we can not forgive. Some of us steal, some of us lie, some pretend, some are too nice to be disliked. If we can slip away from our own self-made-rules, how happy it shoud be! , and the deconstructionists means that. This film is something like philosophy, like Emmanuel Levinas. Otherwise than being, means the supernatural frogs to us, or our possible attitude to that. What kind of relation or interest lying between that frogs and us? And what can we do with that? We are always thinking that we MUST do something in proper reason and can not escape from that recognition. By this self-promising, we can be strong like the peniscentrist in this film, but we unstable beings suffocate with the very stable built-in promises. Forgive or not, the frogs are beyond that. What is important here is that it is neither just a natural disaster, nor just frogs, but frogs falling like rain! This also differ from UFOs and ghosts, E.T.s. We can believe that frog-rain occured. It is quite rational. We can fight against narure like the film 'Twister', and we can quit bullfrog farming, but can we make tornado avoid frog farm, or even imagine that? Falling frogs wake us up and inform that not the all are under rule. In other words, says Other than forgiving/unforgiving. It is funny at all, but no more than our actual situations. Life is not beautiful, rather ugly, but short.
Rating:
Summary: Meaningful for those who let it be
Review: The truly wonderful thing about this film, is that some people walk away from it with insight while others walk out of it bashing it incessently when the real truth is that they didn't understand it. Like the title "Magnolia" implies to those who have a little more creative outlook look on things, the movie is about how different people, all completely naive to their place in the world, can and often do come together into something so much greater than their individual selves. Their pain, triumphs, trials, hopes, dreams, and fears all come into play to create a set of beautiful messages that frankly, the less sophisticated populice often misses and therefore condemns this film without ever understanding a minute of it. I recommend that people see this movie and leave conventional inhibitions at the door and let themselves become immersed in this truly beautiful tale of lonely people, who really are part of something they can't even imagine.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most sensational movies ever made!
Review: On only his thrid feature film, Paul Thomas Anderson has already become one of the greatest film makers of all time. I had really enjoyed his first two films "Hard Eight" and "Boogie Nights" and when I heard about "Magnolia" I was very excited. The film is about a day in the lives of nine different characters that connect to a kids quiz show. It's about the host of the game show, the new boy genious on the show, the old champion of the show, the host's daughter, the cop his daughter meets, the dying producer of the show, his guilt ridden wife, his macho son, and the male nurse looking out for him. It sounds like a lot to take in the three hour time period and it really is too. The actors are all top notch and they could all win Oscars for their performances. Tom Cruise gives the performance of his life as a foul mouthed sex guru who is still bothered by his past family life. The scene when he is at his dying father's bed side is easily the most well acted scene he will ever perform. Jullian Moore, Philip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, John C. Rielly, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Melora Walters also light up the screen with their presence. They way P.T. Anderson ropes all these characters together is the amazing part. Some of these characters get stripped from their regular lives to their darkest and most hurtful emotions. It examins the pain that everyone goes through in life and the different ways we go about dealing with it. It does not all make sense in the end either which is something else we all deal with too. Aimme Mann provides the excellent music for this masterpiece. It is truly an experience to watch this film. P.T. Anderson is already a master at his profession. It will be interesting to see what his future films will be. But as for this one, you really cannot miss it. It is one of the best of all time.
Rating:
Summary: A return to quality film making
Review: A common complaint extended to P.T. Anderson's opus creation "Magnolia" is it's stunning length. This is about where the justification for complaints ends. At a stunning 3 hour and fifteen minute marker, Anderson somehow manages to rope in the lives of ten characters make them interact and give a powerful emotional charge. Cinema as of late has been relying too heavily on the effects laden profit principle. With attention spans limited to fifteen minute segments between commercials it has become more important to remain within boundaries than to traverse them. Anderson does just this. In his script establishes his characters as ghosts. Unlike Boogie Nights (Thank God) he look at the idea of family as a destroyer instead of a bond that ties- and forgiveness as the ultimate form of deliverance from evil. It has been threemonths since I firstlaid eyes on this film andit haunts me still. Brilliant performances by Melora Walters, John C.Reilly and yes even Mr.Cruise,mix the sacred and the profane into a cocktail that is a pleasure to drink. Desperation plays heavily in the film, but somehow you are left with a ssense of hope, and a sense of how chaotic disorder is just part of the game. The direction is flawless, Anderson has an incredible eye and his sense of cinematic irony is bar none. His script is something of literature,uncomprimising in the oppurtunities,they give in gettinginside each character's head. Also his use of biblical referenceis deeper than somemay gather fromteh frogs-the ten main (some are lesser than others) characters, play outcasts, ofgrace-like the lost tribes of Israel not many will catch this nod to biblical history- and John Steinbeck, however it isrepresentativeof how in tune Anderson is as a writer and director. He will not dumb a movie down for the sake mass appeal.He is a filmaker- not just a director and he is a dying breed This is what a film is about- not indiglo moments- or cgi eye candy. This is a story about ten people all are lost and they just want to find a way home. Ladies and gentlemen, please recognize the first of a new crop of directors- and know Anderson has come to stay.
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