# Magnolia **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887 "2004-11-15T17:42:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/21 "2004-11-16T13:44:36Z")
Magnolia is in my top 10. Outstanding performances. Kudos to all actors generally but to Melora Walters specifically. Moore’s pharmacy scene was outstanding. ---
**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/22 "2004-11-16T15:47:39Z")
I loved it. Outstanding dialogues, fine actors. For once a movie in which I actually admired Tom Cruise. His scene with the lady interviewer was one of his best, imho. The moment where he knows she sees through his lies - and he keeps on smiling _but only with his mouth_ was unforgetable. John C. Reilly was heartbreakingly sweet. And funny. His shy attraction to the junkie girl - which even made him try her awful coffee - was beutifully portraited. William Macy and the actor that played the other, older, homo-sexual in the bar [his name escapes me at the moment] were great as rivals for the sexy barkeeper. Sad too. The scene with the frogs was overdone, but delibarately so, imo. An exuberant end to an extravagant, intense and perfect movie. ---
**Author:** ![FriendRob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecc23a/32.png) [@FriendRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriendRob)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/23 "2004-11-16T16:25:54Z")
One of my favorite movies of recent times. Of all times. Wm. H. Macy - “I used to be smart, and now I’m just STUPID.” Tom Cruise - Amazing character. Truly detestable. I loved him. I loved the way the themes intertwined, that not everything was spelled out, the shadowy father/killer who lurked on the edges of the plot, but was central to the whole movie. Pretentious? Yes, in spots. But it was worth suffering through it just to see a movie that was so _different_. Boring? Never! I was fascinated the whole time. Got to get this on DVD… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/24 "2004-11-16T19:33:52Z")
> [@freejooky](#): > > I think it’s definitely both Yeah, that’s why I started this thread. Sometimes I’ll go “What a great and beautiful movie!” Sometimes I’ll go “What a piece of overblown garbage!” This is the first time I’ve had both reactions at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/25 "2004-11-17T00:48:09Z")
Well Freejooky, I’m not a rabid Aimee Mann fan, but I felt that within the structure, that was the best scene in the movie. That there might come a point in all of their stories where people had the radio/tape/cd on and it was telling each to make a change seemed both right and annoyingly synchronistic. Also, as the father of an abused daughter , it made as much sense to me as any movie I’ve seen that deals with the subject. I also think it’s the best thing Tom Cruise has done. Not sure I’d buy the dvd though. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/26 "2004-11-17T03:39:59Z")
I wanted so desperately to love it. I watched the trailers and read some reviews, and rented it on my birthday, so I was prepared to just let it break me down. It didn’t. I was thoroughly unengaged. Despite all of the proper cinematic cues (I’m looking in your direction, Ms. Mann), and the presence of John C. Reilly. At least Happiness (which I took as the indie version of either this or maybe American Beauty) was funny. But I’m thinking of giving it another shot, though I’m afraid I’ll just be left frustrated again. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/27 "2004-11-18T04:54:41Z")
I did not share **CrazyCatLady’s** blinding hatred for the movie; I’m the rare soul who thought it was thoroughly OK. I think there was a great movie in there somewhere. 30 to 45 minutes of the movie could have been cut without actually cutting any individual scenes–just trimming the ones that went on way too long. PTA has made brilliant use of extended moments like that–I thought the long shot of Dirk in the dealer’s house at the end of _Boogie Nights_ was the best shot in the movie–but I just had way too many moments where I said, “Get on with it!” (Roger Ebert said that people who hold my opinion have “cinematic attention deficit disorder”. I say that Roger Ebert can “eat me”.) That said, Aimee Mann’s music, all the great performances, and the intro featuring Ricky Jay (of whom I am a hopeless fanboy) all made it very worthwhile. if not what I’d call great. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/28 "2004-11-18T05:06:10Z")
I love, love this movie, but I cannot watch it very often. It’s simply too wrenching to do so. The scene where the cop is on his hands and knees, rooting around for his gun in the rain, is perhaps the most uncomfortable scene I have ever seen on film. Julianne Moore’s outburst in the pharmacy is outstanding. Tom Cruise’s performance is the only one of his I have ever liked. It also turned me on the Aimee Mann’s music, and I am forever in its debt for that. At the time I first saw this film, I was at a point in my life very much like the people in the soundtrack – especially in “Momentum” and “Driving Sideways”. These songs spoke to me and drew me into her music. I’m now more or less a raving fan of Ms Mann. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887/29 "2004-11-18T05:49:06Z")
I love Aimee Mann, loved her before, during, and after this movie. I made the mistake of watching _Magnolia_ a few days after I watched _Short Cuts_. The two are confused in my mind now. I can separate them if I think long and hard about them (_Short Cuts_ had Julianne Moore’s downstairs, _Magnolia_ had Julianne Moore in love with the dude from _Parenthood_). I would recommend _Short Cuts_ to those who enjoyed _Magnolia_: it is the obvious Altman inspiration for Anderson’s work. Same kind of things – a loose knitting of related stories which all meditate on common themes. It was good but the frog thing lost me as well, although it was kind of a unique yet puzzling thing to put into the movie. There is the same kind of deus ex machina bit in _Short Cuts_ that I didn’t “get” either. I mean, I can find reasons for both of those scenes but none that particularly make the movie more compelling. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magnolia/274887.md?page=1)