Magnolia 1999

Magnolia was absolutely perfect. The sheer scope and ambition alone is amazing, but the fact that it all comes together, that PTA managed to pull it all off, is incredible. This huge mosaic of intertwined stories, of individually fantastic performances and moments that weave together to create this audacious tapestry of a movie. The flawless opening sets the stage and introduces the many seemingly disparate characters, all played by an unparalleled ensemble cast, but as the movie gets underway, connections and similarities emerge as the storylines begin to entangle. Listing all the things that make the film the masterpiece that it is would just mean listing everything that makes a movie. Magnolia is beautiful, it's perfect, it's the second best movie I've ever seen and I love everything about it.

This movie has me at a loss for words. 3 hours just flew by. It's amazing what PTA was able to do with so many different characters and make us care for them and bring them together.

Like each of writer / director Paul Thomas Anderson's other films, I found Magnolia excessively long, desperately wordy, hopelessly plodding and wholly hypnotic. Anderson has developed an innate talent for crafting versatile, flawed, joylessly realistic characters facing the end of their rope, and in that regard this might just be his finest work. While the author's deliberate pace is admittedly a major hurdle, it also allows him to explore his cast to an intimate degree that's untouched by his contemporaries. His characters seem so resistant to forward momentum, in fact, that the eventual arrival of major plot developments often caught me completely by surprise, like being stabbed in the heart by a sloth.

Though Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore and William H. Macy deliver the most rewarding performances, this is really an ensemble piece that would fall flat without the presence of an equally powerful supporting cast. A terrific exercise in characterization, it can be tragically narcoleptic.

Everyone has a tragic backstory and wants to love, be loved, forgive and/or be forgiven. I get it. But did it really need to take 3 hours to convey this? SO unnecessarily long. My favorite performances were probably Hoffman's and Reilly's, which grounded the film for me, but the overall narrative just lost my attention so many times. I wish the characters' lives had been more interconnected, or there were more "chance" encounters between them, or there had been less core characters to focus on and it had been a tighter story. The payoff at the end was not worth the time.

Everyone of the main characters (and there is a lot) has at least one scene when they're screaming about something. Not sure who had more Tom Cruise or Julianne Moore, but I counted at least 3 separate screens each. And who every thought of making a scene where you use shaky cam well giving somebody medicine needs to be kicked in the groin. The raining frogs took whatever patience I had left.

Carried by extraordinary performances and a case study in pacing, this was one hell of a movie. Some plot point issues for sure, but very entertaining and engrossing.

That was a good film with a good message and all the events happening from the different characters were good and the casting was great.

Was really looking forward to watching this. Ended up disappointed. Maybe I just don't get PTA.

It's like Pulp Fiction. A quirky, less-action, drawn-out (it's got a 3-hour runtime!), more-emotional, star-studded Pulp Fiction. I can't, in good conscience, recommend this film to the average movie-watcher, however, I will say this... it was actually somewhat enjoyable. You just have to parse through a lot of elements to find the enjoyment. The culmination, at least provides some sense of closure. I won't say anymore, for fear of spoiling, but, you will NOT see the ending coming.

One epic movie.

Good stuff. Little too long for me, as I felt like there was one too many stories going on.

Tom Cruise at his cruisiest

yes the movie is 100% to my expectations...

I'm wholeheartedly satisfied,,,
psychological drama best genre for me always.

a lot of thanks to All the cast and crew

I loved watching the movie but i wouldn't say the plot was very good. It's very weird a bunch of basic half stories stitched together with no real connection but somehow it holds and doesn't make for a boring but rather interesting watch?

Most of those stories only made sense individually until about the middle of the film, and were partially confusing already then. They do bind together in the end nicely, except for one. The little quiz kid is all left out of this. He’s the one binding the whole night together in a way, but he’s not been in touch with any of the other people. It’s just him, and his dad.

So many questions remain.
How many frogs had to die for this movie? This was way before any cool special effects or CGI and probably before they had to put disclaimers in like “no animals died in the making of this movie”. Thay gore looked way too real.
And… why would you keep driving? Why would you not just hit the brakes especially if you’re in an ambulance with people in danger of dying on board.
Also, why would they suddenly fall horizontally into the blinds and the window? I think people were shocked enough, we didn’t need it to be unlogically weird too.

I’m not too fond of PTA’s movies that wander around for hours without a plot, but “Magnolia” was both entertaining in its over-the-top moments and strangely touching in its dramatic bits.
It portrays an average day of depressed people in Los Angeles, with showers of regrets, loneliness, bad parenting, and one more thing I won’t spoil you. The introduction wants you to believe that the film is going to be a mosaic of different stories destined to come together through coincidences to deliver something bigger, but in the end, it might all be just a product of chaos. Don’t expect big epiphanies, and just enjoy the ride.

PTA is an artist storyteller. Performances were brilliant. Why Cruise didn't at least get an Oscar nom is unexplainable. Heart-wrenching tale about the pain fathers inflict on their children and the forgiveness necessary to break the chain and move life forward.

The absurdity of American suburbia.

This movie is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Not one of the stories is uninteresting.

" I will drop-kick those fuckin' dogs if they come near me"

Disappointing. Too many threads that all want to ram poignancy down your throat. Also boring.

So so so loooooonggg...interesting but sad movie

Coral, to the infernal rhythm at the beginning, to human miseries in the end.

Cinema Paco. Image 4.5 and 4.5 sound. Great movie with several well intertwined stories, great direction and great performances. His fame is well deserved "