Magnolia
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Movie Reviews of Magnolia
Movie Review: Yep, a Hard Secular Rain is Going to Fall
Summary: 3 Stars
Okay, I give the technical aspects of this film 5 stars. But 1 star for content. I like look-at-me camera work to an extent. The acting is all the way from pretty good to extraordinary. I can feel the actor's excitement at getting such actorly things to act upon (but, still, maybe a little too James Lipton "Actor's Studio"? Just maybe?). The energy to keep all the balls in the air on this film is very high. But I agree with the criticisms desiring substance over style. This is a perfect academic case of a director going straight up his anus all the way up the alimentary canal and out his mouth again and then proceeding to take another roundtripper through the digestive system. I get the redemptive elements, I get the human elements. I get the secular quasi-eschatological elements. I get it. I just don't think the substance is that good.
I think the director DOES prepare us for the frogs from the very beginning of the film. Yeah, it's a hard biblical rain that's 'a fallin' and it portends something apocalyptic. And, lo, here comes the angel of the lord in the raps of that little ghetto boy and the psalms/jeremiads being pronounced by the little boy genius on the quiz show with the angel/caduceus symbol in the background making him look so cherubic and so forth. I get that. But, from what I can understand from reading commentary from the director and others, is that he was bolting all this stuff on as he went along in the filmmaking process. Okay, that's fine. A lot of films are made in an ad hoc, improvisatory style. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Here Mr. Anderson has made a huge stew of a movie that's never uninteresting to look at it's just. . .look, if he's making a humanistic sermon about whatever he's thinking about in life I would prefer an actual religious sermon from a preacher who is trained at that kind of rhetoric.
Three more things: (1) the profanity. I know it's moralistic and nancy to say so, but using it so much just IS lazy writing. If I want to hear somebody spouting the "F" word in anger I can do that anytime in my own room for free. I'm good at writing that kind of dialogue on my own. What I want in a movie is some semblance of eloquence. It's hard to really understand Julianne Moore's (or some other's) anger because it's all F___ this and F___ that. In the pharmacy she went all ape caca over those poor pharmacists when she could have just demurred by saying to them "it's for someone i know" and then quietly leaving. I understand her going off on the lawyer she's known for years and leaving a whole mess. For me, if I'm the actor I would want more than that. I just can't dig this Big Lebowski dialogue and come up with a real deep characterization.
(2) The self-help guru's seminars. Tom Cruise's acting is great but if you've ever had real exposure to self help seminars and the actual content of those seminars it's some of the most brilliant balloon juice you've ever heard: Wayne Dyer's Power of Intention, Susie Orman or Dave Ramsey's financial shows, etc., etc. The material that Tom Cruise is working with is so turgid and painfully unaware of what really motivates a crowd. It's like listening to those old "Married With Children" episodes where Al Bundy is having a meeting with the No Ma'am group of guys, only without the truly raucous humor Al and the rest displayed.
(3) That game show has been on for 30 years? Not on any major television network I would know of. It's way too nerdy and wonky. Alex Trebek and "Jeopardy" never gets THAT rarefied. Some variant of "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader" might last 30 years but not this. Only some rare opera buffs on the Metropolitan Opera are going to give you a riff from Carmen in the original French along with the melody. Only an eminent historian like Shelby Foote or David McCullough is going to be able to figure out who those quotes from coming from. But Luis Guzman? Are you kidding. Whatever Luis Guzman is like in real life, he mostly plays hoods and lowlifes and all of a sudden he's playing some genius polymath to go up against the young geniuses. Who's going to believe his posse. And why do the young geniuses only have the one kid to carry them? They've got two spoiled brats and this genius doormat. Come on! This resembles, maybe, an old college bowl quiz show that would show up local public television stations or public access. Maybe it is a quiz show from the magical realist land of Mr. Anderson but it sure ain't never been seen on NBC, ABC or CBS for no three decades.
I could go on. Summing it up. Exasperatingly watchable.
And keep saying to yourselves, people, "it's just a movie." It ain't kids starving in Africa.
Movie Review: Excess
Summary: 3 Stars
While I can admire the technical prowess of Anderson in making this film, there were too many unbelievable story elements, too much cussing, and just too much depravity that it overwhelmed my delicate conscience.
Regarding the unbelievable elements, it wasn't the frogs or the characters breaking into song that put me off. Rather, it was the implausibility of Tom Cruise's character (Frank Mackie) and his misogynistic message, the quiz show's freakishly long run (30 years plus!?), the fact that everyone remembered a whiz kid (Donny), and other such mundane things. I know these weren't major plot points and were rather just simple vehicles to drive the story, their collective implausibility kept interrupting my suspension of disbelief and prevented me from fully buying into Anderson's world.
And the cussing! I know some of you have no problem with it, but it was excessive. Maybe I've just prematurely aged, but when i hear so much vulgarity I just lose interest in the characters and feel the writer is just being lazy.
Some will say, "Well, that's how people talk." Maybe, maybe not. I don't care to hang around people who curse every other word either. It just degrades the whole thing in my opinion.
Finally, while I have no doubt that father's betrayal of his family responsibilities is extremely damaging, I don't like to wallow in it's effects for so long. Some may find cathartic release, but after a time, it just wears me out. Plus, it's a theme that has been explored ad nauseum in movies and TV and I don't know if Magnolia had anything fresh to say about it.
In the end, the movie seemed like an indulgent exercise in artistic and psychological narcissism. I like some of Anderson's work, but he should apply his skills to more varied themes. Plus, I think he just needs a hug, maybe from the cop in Magnolia?
Movie Review: Long, dark and depressing
Summary: 3 Stars
Looking at the summary of reviews here on Amazon, it is clear that this is a "love it or hate it" movie. I don't fall completely into either of those camps, but I thought the director was trying WAY too hard to be arty, avant-garde and mysterious. There are too many balls in the air, and for the first half of this three-hour movie the plot lines seem totally unrelated. Tom Cruise is wonderful as the smarmy "seduce and destroy" seminar leader, until the deathbed scene near the end, when he goes right over the top, wailing and flailing.
The two main problems with Magnolia, as I see it, are that almost none of the characters are very likable, and the production is very dark. Many of the scenes are shot at night or in dark rooms, and the result is a cold, dark feel. Coupled with the sad, screwed-up lives of most of the protagonists, this makes for a depressing film.
Movie Review: Stupid Near Ending With Large Frogs Falling Out From The Sky
Summary: 3 Stars
I really liked this movie until near the ending where for some dumbo reason large frogs started falling out the sky. Really dumb, not to mention gross. This coming from one who has seen his large share of stupid movies amd dumb scenes but this one takes the cake. I mean, how difficult would it have been to have the same scenes be more realistic (and in line with the rest of the movie) with hail, say, the size of baseballs, or even softballs falling from the sky? I think I'll edit it myself with my software editing programs.Movie Review: Excellent cast, odd movie
Summary: 2 Stars
In 1999, the film Magnolia was nominated for three academy awards including best supporting actor (Tom Cruise). With such an all star cast, including John C Reilly, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, and Jeremy Blackman, it is shocking that it did not win more actor/actress nominations! The plot of the film is a bit confusing though similar to Crash and Happy Endings, in which various story lines are presented that appear unrelated only to link up by the end of the movie. In this film, the stories all involve some aspect of the network television industry. The story lines include:
Tom Cruise as a seller of a chauvinistic "help book" called Seduce and Destroy which teaches men how to seduce women without feeling any emotional connection.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as a male nurse for Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) who is an extremely wealthy network owner and husband of Linda Partridge (Julianne Moore)
Philip Baker Hall who is the game show host for the show "What Do Kids Know" (a precursor to Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader) and father to coke addict Claudia (Melora Walters)
John C. Reilly plays a police officer who meets Claudia when he is called to her house on a noise complaint.
William H. Macy plays Donnie Smith, the winner of "What Do Kids Know" in the 1960s who is now forgotten and facing money troubles.
Jeremey Blackman as Stanley who is the current leading contestant on "What Do Kids Know" but is about to buckle under the pressure.
Each story is extremely tragic and there is little levity in the entire movie. With the running time passing three hours, this film can be best described as oppressive. For those who love depressing movies, tragic characters, and superb acting...this film is absolutely for you! However, be aware that there is an extremely odd event that occurs within the last half an hour of the movie that made me cock my head to the side and wonder "what is the director thinking?!" Still, it does not distract too much from the film's story. All of this is typical of the director Paul Thomas Anderson who is responsible for such modern classics as There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love, and Boogie Nights. If nothing else, watch this movie for Cruise's performance alone. His depiction of an insane chauvinistic pig is so much like his current personal state that it is a wonder it was more than ten years ago and not filmed yesterday! Though it's longer than most viewers would like, or even be able to stand, it was worthwhile.