If There Will Be Blood has eclipsed Magnolia as PTA’s most highly praised movie, this deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. TWBB is a vertical, linear story, trained on larger than life oilman Daniel Plainview. Magnolia, by contrast, unfurls like a flower, in every direction. It’s the story of a dying TV producer (Jason Robards), his male nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman), his much younger, second wife (Julianne Moore), his estranged son, a sex guru (Tom Cruise in his greatest single performance), and also of two child game show quiz kids, past and present (PTA worked on a similar show as a teenager), a TV host (Philip Baker Hall), his estranged daughter (Melora Walters), her new boyfriend (John C Reilly)…
In sum, there are enough characters here to furnish a soap opera for several seasons, crisscrossing the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation. Anderson keeps us invested in each of these strands, using the songs of Aimee Mann as a unifying thread. He takes big swings here, it’s his riskiest film, but if you are willing to go with it the pay-off is huge.
Enthralling and exhilarating.
Time Out
Magnolia is a plea for kindness — especially between parents and children. It appeals to the emotional heart rather than the logical brain, but there’s true greatness here — it’s a rare movie, about which one can feel true passion.
Andrew O’Hehir, Daily Telegraph
You don’t have to like everything [Anderson] does, but if you enjoy seeing the walls rattled and the roof raised in the Hollywood citadel, you’ve got to love it.
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Media Partner
Paul Thomas Anderson
Philip Baker Hall, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H Macy, Julianne Moore, Melora Walters
USA
1999
English
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Executive Producer
Michael De Luca, Lynn Harris
Producer
Paul Thomas Anderson, JoAnne Sellar
Screenwriter
Paul Thomas Anderson
Cinematography
Robert Elswit
Editor
Dylan Tichenor
Original Music
Jon Brion
Production Design
William Arnold, Mark Bridges
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