• Viewed January 2018 (probably 5th time) and April 2020
  • It’s an enormous masterwork—pure filmmaking ambition
  • Certainly, since it’s an ensemble piece set it in LA- you have to think of Altman’s 1993 Short Cuts
  • Ebert calls is “operatic ecstasy”
  • It’s a 3 hour film that follows people with ties during one day in one city
  • I love the line from critic Kenneth Turan at the LA Times saying Anderson is “drunk and disorderly on the pure joy of making movies”
  • There is seemingly endless hidden meanings in the film— it’s sort of like the Beatles “White album” (which I think the grandeur and perhaps a little of unevenness makes sense as a comparison). But there’s nothing done unintentionally in the film- from the Exodus references on down
  • Anderson admits the purposeful placement of Charles Fort who wrote on odd phenomena and the entire prologue of the theme of unexplained events— Fort’s book is visible in the library and he’s thanked in the film end credits
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Anderson admits the purposeful placement of Charles Fort who wrote on odd phenomena and the entire prologue of the theme of unexplained events— Fort’s book is visible in the library and he’s thanked in the film end credits
  • There’s a clear interest in the Masonic as well (book in library, Ricky Jay’s line “part on the square” and he has a masonic ring… many more)
  • “The Onion” head writer Todd Hanson talks about how the flowers in the Magnolia are petals of the characters
  • The Frogs are clearly from the Book of Exodus 8:2 “And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs.”– “Exodus 8:2” and “8:2” can be seen many times in the mise-en-scene throughout the film
  • Stanley, the boy, is a prophet- he’s the only character that isn’t surprised by the frogs raining from the sky (love the “cats and dogs” raining comment all the time and the raining itself, in LA, is ironic—anyways)– he says “This is something that happens”
Stanley, the boy, is a prophet- he’s the only character that isn’t surprised by the frogs raining from the sky (love the “cats and dogs” raining comment all the time and the raining itself, in LA, is ironic—anyways)– he says “This is something that happens”
  • The prologue pronounces the ambition—it’s clear up front. This is a meditation on chance, coincidence and fate and in the prologue we have tracking shots and freeze frames
  • Aimee Mann sings three times- at the beginning we have “One” introducing the robust ensemble, we have her “Wise Up” theme singalong and then the “Save Me” finale. Three songs, three weather forecasts.
  • Anderson is moving in and out with the camera on nearly every shot not unlike say Scorsese’s 3 hour epic casino- it must take so much energy (and filmmaking talent) to keep up that level of “directing a film” for a long film like this
  • It could just be me but Maria Falconetti from Dreyer’s the passion of joan of arc looks a little like the profit kid (Jeremy Blackman) here Normally I wouldn’t think anything of it but knowing Magnolia and PT Anderson I wouldn’t put it past him
  • 25 minutes in we have the Cruise introduction to the 2001 music and his volcanic performance. His introduction and cathartic reunion with Robards may be the show-stoppers but his acting in his interview when he’s getting exposed— wow—anyone who thinks Cruise can’t act- please watch those scenes
His introduction and cathartic reunion with Robards may be the show-stoppers but his acting in his interview when he’s getting exposed— wow—anyone who thinks Cruise can’t act- please watch those scenes
  • It’s an angry film- so many of the characters are shouting— Cruise, Julianne Moore (who really walks that line of being over-the-top), Cleo King’s “Marcie” character, Melora Walters is shouting almost all of her time on screen as well
  • A meditation on death
  • Tough to break down the rap sequence which is repeated- I’m sure someone out there has and has found meaning but at least I could pick out the “the good lord bring the rain in” biblical old testament reference
  • At the game show studio (and backstage) it’s almost a continual tracking shot and I love the sequences where picks up following/tracking different characters
  • Cruise is charismatic and arrogant (playing into his main talent as an actor) and studied (even in bad movies like cocktail he’s dedicated to learning how to act like a bartender, or shoot pool)…. I thought of that here with his summersault while changing. It looks like he’d done it a million times.
  • There’s so much here that Anderson owes to Altman and Nashville– it’s a an ensemble, statement on a city, statement on a time era—we have the casting of Henry Gibson here (old man in bar with Macy) and Murphy as Moore’s lawyer
  • Whip pans galore between stories at 66 mins
  • Nearly every single action is so well set up formally. Reilly drops his night stick first…then the gun- his character thanks God one moment for introducing him to a woman and then he curses god or at least questions him for making him lose his gun
  • The characters are almost all hanging by a very thin thread
  • Gorgeous slow-motion bar shot of Macy with his braces set to rock/pop. Can’t do a slow-motion shot like that in a bar with that music and not think of Scorsese (mean streets, casino, goodfellas)
  • All the performances are superb. As good as the actors are in like Nashville these here in Magnolia are some of the best actors of their generation, PSH, Julianne Moore, Cruise— Jason Robards is equally brilliant- there is some great Ingmar Bergman-like staging of faces with him and Cruise in their scenes. The sequence where Cruise really tells him off and breaks down is devastatingly brilliant and should’ve given Cruise the Oscar for 1999 supporting
  • The “Wise Up” Sing-a-long is a transcendently brilliant form-breaking moment. It’s ballsy but I love it. It’s one of the best filmmaking sequences in the decade. Equally ballsy is the choice to do the frogs—absolutely love it
  • The interconnectivity is set up in the opening. PTA’s camera flying at you (with timely freeze frames)—“this was not just a matter of chance”—PTA is all about stating the thesis up front formally like the montage on the beach in The Master– then rolls into Aimee Mann’s “One”—
  • Forward tracking shots introduction of ensemble
  • At 13 minutes we get the first of three weather forecasts. PTA- always the formal master. The pink/blue color splashes in Punch-Drunk Love, the wake in The Master
  • Dense—difficult—but always engaging. The Charles Fort references, the freemasons, the rap lyrics, cats and dogs in the text with the Exodus 8:2 throughout. This is a day in the life of this ensemble in LA. Gibson’s character says they are “a spoke in the wheel that goes round and round”
  • At 43 minutes the weather comes in again—then a great 3 minute tracking shot following the characters on the game show and picking up and trading off to someone new as they interact
  • A film really about bastard patriarchs, mentor/mentee as always with PTA—the quote from the Bard—Merchant of Venice “sins of the father” — “Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father are to be laid upon the children; therefore, I promise you, I fear you. I was always plain with you, and so now I speak my agitation of the matter: therefore be of good cheer; for, truly, I think you are damned.” These characters (the Macy character, Melora Walters, Cruise, Jeremy Blackman young genius Stanley)
  • It takes like 5 viewings of the film but there are pictures or paintings of magnolias throughout the movie, video game in the bar is frogger
  • At 140 minutes the “Wise Up” sing-along—9 characters. Transcendently bold – theme and variation in great art- this is a moment of breakthrough
  • 142 minutes the weather for the third time.
  • The John C. Reilly and Melora Walters section of the film is like a preview of Punch-Drunk Love– Reilly is so good at the dinner scene
The John C. Reilly and Melora Walters section of the film is like a preview of Punch-Drunk Love — and off to the right just one of the many paintings, pictures, or actual magnolias in the film decor
  • 166 minutes the frogs raining—another bold breaker
  • And the final shot- a long shot- one take to Aimee Mann’s “Save Me”—Walters stares at the camera as PTA moves the camera in. Devastating—uplifting. PTA has given us 3-4 (absolutely There Will Be Blood and The Master) of cinema’s great ending shots—this is one
And the final shot- a long shot- one take to Aimee Mann’s “Save Me”—Walters stares at the camera as PTA moves the camera in. Devastating—uplifting. PTA has given us 3-4 (absolutely There Will Be Blood and The Master) of cinema’s great ending shots—this is one
  • A Masterpiece