Magnolia - New Line Platinum Series

Rating:
Summary: Film-making at its best
Review: ***intertwining plots-characters' stories are inter-related and go back and forth throughout the movie, very clever, interesting and well done..brilliant directing
*unforgettable characters-all Oscar worthy
*3 hours, but never a dull moment; fast-paced, indulging scene changes throughout movie
*shocking ending
*ammmazing music...i thought the first song went especially well with what was going on in this movie.......and when the cocaine addict was blasting her music-that sequence
*many memorable scenes, twists, witty humor, Magnolia will stay with you forever

Rating:
Summary: One hell of a twisted masterpiece!
Review: Terrific!!! Sorry, I'm still mesmerized. I just watched this movie for the fifth time and it still amazes me. The humor is dark but so much to the point and close to real life that you'll look at your life differently from the moment you finished watching this one. The actors are perfectly casted for their roles. Each and every one of them fits his/hers better than a glove. The storyline with all its twists and turns, the laughter and the tears - wonderful. If ever you'd want to compare it to something else - which is difficult because it's so unique - the Coen brothers and Robert Altman come to mind. But as I said before, this one is truely one of a kind. Paul Thomas Anderson's unique ironic view of reality will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Rating:
Summary: Run, do not walk, as far away from this movie as you can
Review: I wish I had the three hours of my life back that I wasted on this movie. The characters are unsympathetic and uninteresting. The opening works hard to set up some big cosmic payoff that will link all the lives and coincidences together into something coherent, but it never happens. Tom Cruise's character is ludicrous and Julianne Moore is literally unwatchable. And then there's the frogs. Somehow, nothing says that the director didn't know where to go with the film quite like having really big frogs falling from the sky. The best thing about this movie is that Aimee Mann did the music and the only truly excellent scene in the whole 3 hours is the few seconds where all the characters (even the unconscious ones) sing along to one of her songs.


Rating:
Summary: Do NOT overlook this movie.
Review: OK, yesterday I sat down to watch "Magnolia." I'd heard a little bit about it: Critics generally loved it, and one friend of mine whose opinion I respect said I absolutely HAD to see it. But there was something about this film that dissuaded me for a long time. Maybe it was the packaging: A single magnolia blossom. What does that tell me? Nothing. I'd seen a music video that Aimee Mann had done for the movie, and it gave me the impression that "Magnolia" must just be horribly depressing. Then there were hints about a bunch of interconnected stories and something about frogs falling from the sky. "Too esoteric," I said to myself.

So here I am at the video rental store, and none of the current crop of new releases is really speaking to me, and then I stumble across "Magnolia," and I think to myself, "Oh, what the hell." So I take it home and start watching ... and suddenly I'm completely swept up by one of the most remarkable and sublime movies I've seen in a long time. And I don't use the word "sublime" lightly.

There are some astonishing performances here by Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, and William H. Macy. Philip Seymour Hoffman is IMMENSELY likeable as a sensitive hospice care worker. The direction, by "Boogie Nights'" Paul Thomas Anderson, is inspired if occasionally frenetic.

What is this movie about? Well, it's about a lot of things including pain, forgiveness, regret, redemption, coincidence, and cancer. Does that scare you off? Please don't let it. Please give this movie a chance, because once you start watching, you will be sucked into it, and your jaw may occasionally drop, and you may occasionally laugh, and you will most definitely reach for the Kleenex. Overall this movie packs a SEVERE emotional wallop, and personally it seems I watched it at exactly the right time in my life. Be advised that at 188 minutes this is a LONG movie, yet it's paced in such a way that it never becomes tedious.

This is one of those epic little films that too many people overlook, thinking it will be too arty or pretentious for their tastes. All I can suggest is that if you can pick a gloomy, rainy Sunday afternoon to curl up on the couch and immerse yourself in "Magnolia," I'm quite confident you'll be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomonal commentary on the human condition
Review: This movie is amazing. It's not your typical sappy romance or comedy. It is black comedy at its finest as the story of people's interwoven lives during times of crisis. I won't guarantee that you'll be at the edge of your seat at all times, but you will be taken in by the stories. And if you are fascinated by the human condition and life in general, and if you find bad situations slightly humorous on some level, then you will love this movie. It is also one of the finest castings of Tom Cruise that I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: It's all connected
Review: Characters in completely different situations are connected through the feeling of loneliness, despair, or hope happening at the same moment in time. A masterpiece movie that gets under one's skin and grows in retrospect. At over three hours, Magnolia may seem rambling, but every little piece of the film means something and is there for a reason. This is the only movie with Tom Cruise that I could ever recommend. I think you have to be able to relate to this one to have any appreciation for it though, but I could be wrong.

This is one of my all time favorite soundtracks. Aimee Mann, who incidentally was the inspiration for a few of the story lines, singing "Save Me", "Wise Up" and covering Harry Nilsson is a thing of beauty.


CLAUDIA: Now that I've met you would you object to never seeing me again?

Rating:
Summary: I have never seen a better movie than "Magnolia"
Review: There are scenes, and lines, in Magnolia that will stay with me for the rest of my life. The narrator saying periodically "And the book says, we may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." Aimee Mann singing "Wise Up" and "Save Me". Policeman Jim Kurring saying "Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail. But if you can forgive someone, well, that's the tough part. What can we forgive? Tough part of the job. Tough part of walking down the street." This is the most deeply human movie I have ever experienced.

If you can appreciate that a movie can touch your heart, can be something more than just simple entertainment, and can actually say something both simple and profound about the human condition, then you will love Magnolia. It is not easy watching. It is at turns foul-mouthed, confused, chaotic, irrational, depressing, uplifting, unrealistic, too realistic, unpredictable, heavily symbolic, violent, and unflinchingly, gut-wrenchingly honest in its portrayal of damaged characters trying to make sense of the wreckage of their lives. And yet, through all of this there is a beacon of hope and redemption that shines through, and most of the characters do find the strength to carry on. Watching Magnolia is like having an entire lifetime's worth of powerful emotions crammed into a three hour movie. If you have an open mind, and an open heart, you must see this movie. I have a hard time imagining how anyone will ever be able to make a better one.

Rating:
Summary: Fate gives it 5 stars.
Review: I am not a really big fan of Tom Cruise or Julianne Moore or William H or Phillip Seymour for that matter most of the people in this movie are people do not like, Cruise is too much of a non-brainer action film star, which I hate. Moore is simply crap and decided to ruin one of the worlds greatest film by making a sequel, the silence of the lambs I'm talking about, and is no good in anything else I have had the misfortune to see her in (Jurassic Park, The Forgotten). William H. is a nobody. Phillip Seymour Hoffman does not possess his dad's unique talents and every character he plays is repulsive and vile to watch such as George Willis Jnr in Scent of a Woman. BUT... Magnolia is completely different, I think this film is a masterpiece, definitely the best film of the year 2000, the story is confusing but intriguing, the characters are mixed up but in a way believable, Cruise actually acts, I think the spectacular film he made a year before it for Stanley Kubrick actually gave him the ability to act, Eyes Wide Shut andMagnolia are his only worthwhile films, even in Rain Man he overdoes it, but in Magnolia he acts with flair, imagination, and passion he is presented as a top quality performer, and it's about time seeing as he's been film for ages, the same applies for Julianne Moore who is good in this but crap in everything else - oh apart from the Fugitive but she's only in it for five minutes. William H. a comedic star from things like Mystery Man plays a weird guy, he does it well, I love the part where he gets drunk and begins to throw his weight about - reminds of something like Cheers. Hoffman is brilliant, he plays a likeable character and does it well he may grow up to be as good as his dad yet this film does him justice, but he'll need to do something pretty good to catch up with Dustin. Yet I think this film is phenomonal, and I know I use this word in a lot of my reviews but it is true, it really is phenomenal, and even though it is around 3 hours or so long it still grips you from start to finish, when I first watched it, it started at eleven o clock and I was tired but I darest not turn my eyes from the screen, the acting is good frim a group of actors known for terrible roles and P T Anderson does a fantastic job of using crisp imagery to manifest the story into you, it is fantastic, I don't care what you say.


Rating:
Summary: no piss, no s**t, no lies
Review: Regret, abandon, resentment, and the inescapable power of emotion are just a few of the themes that Paul Thomas Anderson attempts to express in his three hour film Magnolia. The film follows the lives of several characters, some connected to each other through family or occupation, others connected far less explicitly. Magnolia delivers a bittersweet message about human relationships and existence: that you are not alone in the world, but the bonds you share with others are not necessarily pleasant, or even desired.
Anderson seems to emphasize two aspects of film in Magnolia: the complete and uninhibited expression of his characters and the emotional connections those characters share with each other. Through long, uninterrupted shots of character dialogue, he conveys the intensity of humans putting their more buried feelings on display. When Julianne Moore's character condemns the pharmacists for judging her, the camera never cuts to their reactions. When Philip Baker Hall, a TV quiz how host dying of cancer, reveals his past affairs and mistakes to his wife, the audience does not see her until Hall is finished speaking. In situations where camera cuts would have allowed the audience to see the stunned or anguished reactions of the listeners, the camera instead remains fixated on the character that is speaking. What is achieved by this technique is an in-your-face glimpse into the depths of human beings, one which deserves undivided attention.
While the importance of human expression is clear enough in Magnolia, the relevance of certain characters and character relationships is not so obvious. By juxtaposing seemingly unrelated characters with each other, Anderson seems to imply that although people may not be connected through plot or circumstance, everyone is connected through feeling and emotion. Twice in the movie the story pauses as each character is caught in completely different situations, but somehow each of them is feeling the same sense of loneliness, or despair, or hope, all at the same moment. The audience perceives that a naïve and benevolent policeman and a resentful, cocaine-addicted shut-in can share an emotional bond that exceeds their opposing circumstances. More subtly, the connection that Philip Seymour Hoffman and the Seduce and Destroy hotline man - both of them have suffered the emotional anguish of seeing someone dying of cancer - stresses the undeniable significance of personal bonds between the most unlikely, and in some cases unnecessary, of human beings. Magnolia suggests that you can meet a stranger in a bar, on the street, or over the phone, and no sexual, social, or political disparities can overshadow the emotional bond that two people can share.


Rating:
Summary: I just don't know
Review: This is one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. Being a fan of P.T. Anderson, I rented it, and I don't even know what to think. I am sure that the directing and cinematography are brilliant. I blame the writing. This movie is an enormous web of stories and characters. The storylines constantly intertwine, and in the end I was just kind of confused what went where. Each story in itself is amazingly well done. The acting and directing left me stunned. The problem with this movie, however, was the switching between them. And while each individual character did so much for me, all thrown together just hurt the experience of this movie. Constant scene interruptions just tore me away from the characters. If it had only been about a few of them...Frank, Phil, and Earl, or Jim and Claudia, or Jimmy and Stanley, or just Donnie Smith, then I would have been able to get into it so much more. As it stands, the movie just made my head hurt. So I think the problem is that P.T. Anderson just got a little carried away entertaining the idea of a bunch of storylines all meeting together with one climax. If he had stuck with the individual storylines he could have made three or four amazing movies out of this. Instead, there is just the one unfulfilling movie. I gave it three stars, but that doesn't really mean anything. It's just an averaging of the five stars I give to Anderson's directing and the whole cast's acting, and the one star I give to the movie overall because of Anderson's inability to restrain himself when he wrote it. If this movie had been multiple movies, I would love them a lot more.