Magnolia

Pros: Strong performances from Tom Cruise and Jason Robards.
Cons: Julianne Moore and Bill Macy are off target with their performances.

It's funny how your opinion of a given film can change in the span of eight years. I saw Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" just before its theatrical run ended in august of 1999. Back then, I rated it as a four star film. In 2008, I think that a ...

Pros: Great acting, beautifully filmed
Cons: Very long - nearly 3 hours in length

At nearly three hours long, Magnolia is an arduous cinematic experience. While taxing at times, the beautifully shot scenes and character development are simply incredible. The ensemble cast help to create an intricate storyline and an exciting overall ...

Pros: Pacing. Script. Performances. Direction.
Cons: Slightly slow beginning.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia is easy to attack for its abundance of coincidences and deus-ex-machina-esque ending, but people fail to understand that those two factors are what it's all about. Writer/director Anderson manages to weave in many ...

Pros: brilliant performances, interconnectedness, compassionate outlook
Cons: some violence, considerable lewdness, prolific profanity

I wasn’t sure what I would think of Magnolia when I set out to watch it last week. I’d heard of the movie but didn’t have any idea what it was about, only that it was stylistically unusual. When my brother’s friend Ian, who had brought it over, ...

Pros: P.T. Anderson's Script/Direction, Look, Mood, Editing, Score, & Ensemble Cast.
Cons: None, Though Some Might Not like the 3 Hour, 15 Minute Time Running.

After the success of the 1997 porno-drama Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson was clearly becoming one of the newest and brightest of film directors in bringing an alternative to the post-Tarantino world of violence. The success of Boogie ...

Pros: Script, amazing cast, cinematography, intriguing, some good direction
Cons: Way too long, pacing problems

"Magnolia" (1999) Review by Marshall Garvey Rating (0 to 5): 4 Credits: Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Written by Anderson Produced by Anderson and Joanne Sellar Original music by Jon Brion, Fiona Apple, and Aimee Mann New Line ...

Pros: Great acting, interesting characters, Tom Cruise in a 'baddie' role.
Cons: Ending is interesting but doesn't feel like it has come together well.

Magnolia is by the same director that gave us Boogie Nights, P. T. Anderson. The movie follows a bunch of characters that are loosely connected to each other by a long-running game show, which pits the intellect of children against that of ...

Pros: Captivating, great theme (the seeming randomness of life), super acting
Cons: A bit too long

A movie with a tragic-comic start, which sets the theme. And perhaps that is the reality of life. ...

Pros: Beautiful superstructure of a film
Cons: "a long way to go for no punch...a little moral...story I say.."

Pros: profound exploration of fascinating characters and the human condition.
Cons: only if "depressing" is a con.

I try not to throw superlatives around too much, but this is one of the best movies I've seen in quite some time. What is important to me in a story is character development, and the degree to which greater truths are explored, and this movie has both...

Pros: Original, creative, engrossing
Cons: Depressing

This is a great big bubbling stew of a movie, and director P.T. Anderson ("Boogie Nights") is an exuberant cook, throwing in ingredients no one has thought to combine before: heaping cups of Robert Altman-style interwoven stories -- seasoned with a...

Pros: dialogue, acting, visually stunning, hidden meanings
Cons: dragged in some areas

Paul Thomas Anderson and the majority of his cast from Boogie Nights are back, but this time they're not in headbands and bellbottoms, and they have a new edition in the mix with none other than Tom Cruise. Cruise is a stand-out in the film, playing an...

Pros: Outstanding performances and stories
Cons: Very long

Magnolia is the most recent movie by Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of the excellent Boogie Nights. It is several stories taking place in the San Fernando Valley of California. The intended theme of these stories is that the course of...

Pros: This is one of the best movies I have ever seen
Cons: None

I have seen Magnolia 5 times at least and love it more each time I see it. I must say this is truly one of the best films I have ever seen.
Magnolia is that it is built loosely on the principal that people are connected by six degrees of...

Pros: Characters, Dialogue, Plot, Acting, "Look."
Cons: None. Absolutely none. Not a single con.

"And the book says we may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us. And no, it is not dangerous to confuse children with angels!" So speaks the middle aged Donnie Smith, played by William H. Macy near the middle of the film ...