There is the story of a boy genius, Stanley Spector. And the game show host, Jimmy Gator. And the ex-boy genius, "Quiz Kid" Donnie Smith. There is the story of the dying man, Earl Partridge. His lost son, Frank T.J. Mackey. And the dying man's wife, Linda Partridge. The caretaker, Phil Parma. And there is the story of a mother, Rose Gator. And the daughter, Claudia Wilson Gator. And the police officer in love, Jim Kurring. And this will all make sense in the end.
- The "Magnolia" trailer
The successor to Boogie Nights is mindblowingly brilliant. To the detractors of Magnolia's who impute that this kaleidoscope of avant-garde originality is too long, I use a quote from Roger Ebert's review of Jackie Brown, "Those who say it is too long have developed cinematic attention deficit disorder."
Half the people who witnessed Magnolia cherished and extolled it. Now Magazine, WGN Radio, and Matinee Magazine all had it on their top ten movies of the decade lists, while Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Michael Dequina (Movie Report), David Ansen (Newsweek), Mike Clark (USA Today), and the National Board of Review had it one their top ten movies of the year lists. The other half of the world hated Magnolia with a passion, most notably, Kevin Smith bashed the film on his website.
Magnolia is a collage of about ten separate stories. Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) is the current wunderkind on the hit TV show "What Do Kids Know" which is in its 33rd year hosted by Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall). Stanley is three days away from breaking the record set by "Whiz Kid" Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) decades ago. Donnie is currently working for Solomon Solomon (Alfred Molina), an electronic store that uses Smith's celebrity status to lure customers.
Then, we have the Gator family. Jimmy Gator's got issues; he's just been diagnosed with cancer and has been given only two months to live. His estranged daughter, Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Walters), is a coke-sniffing slut who abhors him. Walters is a stand out in Magnolia as a cracked and derailed twenty-something who engages in meaningless anonymous sex and disturbs the peace in her neighborhood. Things take an interesting twist when she meets Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly), the pious cop who falls in love with Claudia at first sight.
Then, there's the Partridge Family. Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is living his last days in a deathbed. All he has is his wife, Linda Partridge (Julianne Moore), and nurse, Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Earl tells Phil his dying wish is to see his lost son, Frank T.J. Mackie (Tom Cruise). This is easily the most engrossing story in the film simply because the best dialogue and acting comes from this tale.
Two-time Oscar winner Robards delivers several affective monologues, Moore is at her PMSing best, and Tom Cruise gives the best performance of his career as the cocky and macho misogynistic guru of "Seduce and Destroy." He plays a character oozing enough sleazy, slimy charisma to earn my pick for "Best Sexist Performance of the 90s." The fact that he lost the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Michael Caine is simply proof positive that the Academy Awards are BS.
The man behind it all, Paul Thomas Anderson, is perhaps the most talented writer in showbiz today next to his friend and colleague Quentin Tarantino. This guy has almost as many ingeniously clever ideas as Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich). For example, each act in Magnolia is labeled by weather forecast. The film opens with a prologue made up of three unrelated vignettes to prepare us for the forthcoming coincidences. P.T. Anderson has said, "The goal there was to have a lot of cinematic fun. But it's also a promise that can be made very quickly- weird stories, weird coincidences, and f--king strange s--t will happen."
Indeed it does, one of the highlights of Magnolia is a sing along to the oracular "Wise Up" by all the characters in different scenes. It's one of several idiosyncratically whimsical moments in this masterpiece. Moments like these are usually accompanied by Jon Brion’s score or one of Aimee Mann’s mellifluous songs. P.T. Anderson said, "I really set out to write an adaptation of her songs... Her songs become the built-in voice of the movie, tying all the stories together." That and a spectacular climax of biblical proportions that makes Magnolia all the more a pièce de résistance.
Like a Kubrick film, some at first will hate Magnolia. However, 20 years from now, those same people who said they hated it will realize its groundbreaking brilliance and say they loved it all along.
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