Magnolia (1999) — Read Along
“My name is Donnie Smith, and I have lots of love to give”
As you’re about to discover, I’ve long curated my own self-deprecating joke that I watch “Magnolia” once a month “just to keep my hand in” and ensure this is still a goddamn masterpiece. That monthly 3 hour marathon of majestic melancholia was last evening and with the lights turned out, phone ignored and falling backwards off the weed wagon once more I can confirm Paul Thomas Anderson’s first cinematic masterpiece is still utterly glorious and should be considered essential viewing until the end of time.
Yes there’s raining frogs and luck, love, chance, redemption, deceit, longing, depression, desperation, desire, despair, loneliness and ghosts of the past and demons for the present all wrapped around a beautiful bubbling cinematic score from Jon Brion. Yes the use of Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger” may break your heart but not before a cast of Tom Cruise (never, EVER, better), John C Reilly, Melora Walters (be still, my beating heart), Jeremy Blackman (THAT performance from one so young), Julianne Moore (be still, my beating heart), William H Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman (Rest In Peace sweet man), Philip Baker Hall and Jason Robards (RIP) all sing Aimee Mann’s beautiful “Wise Up”, splintering your heart into a thousand tiny pieces as they do so.
Then Claudia smiles direct to camera and all is well with the world once more.
My original spoiler free review penned and published over a decade ago:
“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.
"Magnolia" (1999) - original article
"Paul Thomas Anderson - an appreciation" - original article
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" Vol.7
Aside from the self-regarding nonsense that my video reading here of “Magnolia” is one of my favourites from late last year (very “dry” but very human and very me), you dear reader now have an exciting choice ahead of you.
You can either:
(a) Read my entire review of “Magnolia” again via the first link above but this time with an altogether different opening and original pictures.
(b) Treat yourself to any and/or all of the first 6 films in the career of director Paul Thomas Anderson and my spoiler free love-in treatment of them all.
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos as I read my own spoiler free review of the film (@TheBlackfordBookClub), hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix of doom.
Oh, and (f) There’s also a link to Volume 7 of my “Essential Film Reviews Collection” (where you’ll find “Magnolia” among many, many more) packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon.
All 7 volumes are FREE to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.
Just reading the synopsis you gave I can tell it's in the vein of the multi-character ensemble pieces Altman excelled at.
P.T. Anderson taking up the mantle of Robert Altman.