“Magnolia” (1999)
PT Anderson’s first masterpiece.
PT Anderson’s first masterpiece.
“I don’t know where to put things, you know? I really do have love to give! I just don’t know where to put it”
So laments a quiz kid named Donnie Smith, and so began my personal obsession with this astounding film and a two decades and counting cinematic love affair with its creator and director, Paul Thomas Anderson.
I have a huge list of “all time favourite films” and I’m presuming if you’re reading this dear reader, you do too. I’ll also safely assume that your list, like mine, grows with every passing film. Magnolia is in the very top echelon of an incredibly crowded field that also includes PT Anderson’s The Master from 2012, but here we have an obnoxious sex guru, cheating spouses, an error prone policeman, an abuse survivor, life, death, mortality, coincidence, luck, fate, talent, a frogman stuck in a tree, “Rain Clearing, Breezy Overnight” and frogs, lots and lots of raining frogs!
I’m obsessed with this film as you’re about to discover, and I hope you enjoy my biased and wholly myopic ramblings and musings.
Paul Thomas Anderson — An appreciation
My first ever film blog! Sydney, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood and The Master.medium.com
“What am I doing? I’m quietly judging you”.
Seen on far too many occasions for me to admit. OK, the old joke is I watch this once a month just to keep my hand in, and there’s a little truth to the joke. But where to start with this modern classic? Vague and bizarre weather reports? CHECK. Raining frogs? CHECK. Bizarre, interwoven but seemingly unconnected historical events? CHECK. Tom Cruise acting his arse off? CHECK. Melora Walters providing an acting master class of immense proportions? CHECK. A beautiful yet haunting musical score from Jon Brion? CHECK. I could go on (Philip Seymour Hoffman is incredible) but I am exceedingly biased and simply blown away every time I watch this. However, in the fairness of balance(?) some have criticised this as way too melancholic, confusing, upsetting and a plodding over long drama. To those I retort, it is uplifting beyond measure and with a screenplay from director Anderson that resonates through every character and central performances that astound me every time.
This is but the tip of a very deep iceberg, again covering relationships, human frailty, desperation, loneliness, despair, but intermingled with joy, redemption, recovery and the triumph of the human spirit. Whenever you’re settled into the film, a seemingly unconnected “event” is interwoven into the narrative to make you question the event and it’s relevance. Oh, and there’s 7/8 interweaving stories from rich, seemingly unconnected characters all taking place at the same time, in the same city, which slowly and deliberately come together to produce a sublime piece of cinema. The DVD “extras” has a feature length documentary on the making of this masterpiece which is as essential a watch as the film itself. I can’t possibly do this film justice, it truly is a masterpiece, and the starting point for my cinematic love for Paul Thomas Anderson.
Back to the film itself: You have Tom Cruise as never seen before and never better as Men’s Sexual Counsellor “Frank TJ Mackey”, Julianne Moore as guilt ridden, drug taking, cheating wife “Linda Partridge” to Jason Robards “Earl Partridge” (stand out performance), John C Reilly’s error prone but good hearted policeman “Jim Kurring”, Philip Baker Hall dominates the screen in every scene as “Jimmy Gator” and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s heart-breaking performance as male nurse “Phil Parma”. This truly is a stellar cast and a stellar film, with numerous more cameo performances from Luis Guzman, Alfred Molina, Michael Bowen and Melinda Dillon to name but a few.
Yet to be mentioned are “Quiz Kid Donnie Smith” (brilliantly portrayed by William H Macy), Melora Walters will break your heart as “Claudia” and Jeremy Blackman similarly as the precocious quiz kid, “Stanley Spector”.
The following short scene gets me every time, is the most bizarre and surreal in a very high calibre list of bizarre and surreal moments and is roughly 4 minutes of screen time from this 188 minute master class. It occurs towards the end of Act Two and it tells you everything and nothing and leads us onto the fantastic soundtrack accompanying this film:
As the strains of Aimee Mann’s brilliant “Wise Up” begins so too do every main character in the film, singing along in separate edited segments to the entirety of the song. Beginning with Claudia as first she announces “You’re so stupid” before snorting two lines of cocaine and singing along, the camera slowly panning in to a close up of her before slowly cutting to Jim, now also singing along, revealed by a slow pan around a bedroom door to reveal him sitting on the edge of his bed, the cross clearly illuminated on the wall behind him. Next is Jimmy Gator, sitting at home singing along as another slow pan closes in on him, followed by Donnie Smith, similar panning shot as before, this time, his large winner’s cheque clearly illuminated behind him as he sings along. Next is the stricken Earl Partridge and his nurse Phil Parma but here they are both singing along as the camera slowly pans past Phil and into a close up of Earl. Now moving outside for the first time and two similar shots of separate cars drenched in the pouring rain, and of firstly Linda Partridge singing along before a slow reveal shows Frank TJ Mackey doing likewise before a final shot of Stanley Spector brings both the song and this bizarre scene to a close.
Two interesting issues to note before we close, firstly Stanley’s panning shot is the first to move away from a character as all of the others have been zoom/pans into a character and secondly as the song ends as does the pouring rain, very abruptly to be replaced with yet another bizarre weather forecast “Rain Clearing, Breezy Overnight”.
Leaving aside spoilers and major plot points, this film is as near as cinematic perfection as you can get. The overall soundtrack itself to the film is minimal, but is saved, quite literally, by Aimee Mann’s haunting and beautiful “Save Me” over the closing credits and “Wise Up” as briefly described above. However, with various tracks interspersed within the film, the stand alone soundtrack to the film is highly recommended. Dominated by Aimee Mann with further tracks “One”, “Build that Wall”, “You Do” and “Nothing is Good Enough”, there are also gems from Supertramp “The Logical Song”, Gabrielle’s “Dreams” (hilariously used in the film) and some joyous operatic pieces such as “Habanera from Carmen” by Georges Bizet and “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss.
Brilliant and darkly funny, heart breaking, thought provoking or melancholic and dreary drama. Your take your chance, your choose your poison. Just watch out for the frogman in the tree, the guy on the roof and those pesky raining frogs! It really happened, you know! If you haven’t seen this film and are reading the characters as sex counsellor, male nurse, policeman and quiz kid’s and wondering what the hell is going on, well welcome to the club! And the good news is, it works. Perfectly. All of the disparate stories, events, cut-scenes and even the raining frogs, it’s a complete triumph of the will film
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“Heat” (1995)
The Best of Michael Mann — Vol 1.medium.com
“Corpse Bride” (2005)
The Best of Tim Burton — Vol 4.medium.com
“We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
“The people on TV, inside the TV, they’re watching TV”.medium.com