I like dramas, especially well-acted dramas. I like surreal movies - Big Fish was great, and Hudson Hawk is a favorite.
This movie, however, was a complete and utter piece of trash.
I got The Insider, The Iron Giant, and Magnolia from Netflix last weekend. And watched them in that order. I really enjoyed in the Insider… loved the Iron Giant, too.
But Magnolia… ugh. I want three hours of my life back.
Mr. Anderson : To have a successful and entertaining drama, you need two things. One, a plot. It can be a weak plot, but there should be one. Two, characters. No, not “caricatures”… I know they sound similar, but they’re quite different, I can assure you. Your over-the-top, poorly developed “portraits” of human beings do not qualify.
Cut Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman out of the film, and their respective subplot… what have you lost? Some incoherence, some bad acting (even from Julianne Moore, usually solid) and about an hour of time. which might turn this stinker into a bearable, but boring film.
Tom Cruise was impressive, I’ll grant you that. But overall, the movie sucked rancid goat ass. It was just excruciating, to the point that when it started raining frogs, my only reaction was relief that the damn thing must surely be almost over. Seriously, if I hadn’t ridden to the theater with other people, I would have walked out during the music montage. It was just that bad.
I think the biggest thing was what bothered me about Lost in Translation–I just didn’t feel a damn thing for a single one of the characters. Give me characters I can like or dislike or feel sorry for, or something. If you won’t do that, at least the people I don’t give a shit about do something.
I’m with you. Years ago, I talked my best friend into seeing Magnolia when it first came out. The way the plotlines interlinked and everything tied up at the end looked interesting, at least according to what I read in the reviews. I wanted to like the movie. As I said, it looked interesting.
Unfortunately, I found myself bored by the plots, unmoved by the characters, and annoyed by the movie’s pretentiousness. It seemed too show-offy for my taste, showing too much of the technique through the art, kind of like seeing an artist’s rough sketch through a painting. There was also only one character I came close to liking, the policeman, I think, and I got the impression the audience wasn’t supposed to like him because he was a stereotypical goody-goody. I admit Tom Cruise’s character was fun, in part because he seemed so easy to shoot down and because he reminds me of a friend of mine, but at the same time, I didn’t like him.
I know there are people who love this movie and I thought I’d be one. I’m not. At least this one looked good. It’s also not the worst movie I’ve seen. Among other things, I indulged a different friend by agreeing to see Troy with him this summer. The karmic debt I picked up by taking a friend to see Magnolia has been repaid.
I liked that character, too, and I disagree that the audience was supposed to dislike him. One of the things I liked about this movie was that none of the characters are meant to be disliked by the audience, even the truly awful ones. The policman in particular, I think, was disliked by his fellow officers for being a “stereotypical goody-goody,” but never let that dissuade him from being a goody-goody. I thought that was very admirable, and I think was the major purpose behind his character.
Also, William H. Macy. No film with William H. Macy can be totally worthless.
I felt he was wasted here. (No pun intended on his bar scene.)
And his desire for braces, capped off with the jaw damage at the end of the movie? “Duuuhhrr. IRONY! Get it?” Yes, PT. We get it. “IRONY!” That’s a good boy, here’s a juice box. Go play with your crayons.
I’m somewhat torn on the whole Magnolia thing. I liked parts of it, and I think Paul Thomas Anderson is a promising director.
There were parts that drove me up the friggin wall though. The whole urban legend beginning thing seemed really friggin pointless. The rain of frogs part knocked my right out of the movie. :mad: Once I got past the beginning and into the movie, it was okay. Not brilliant, but good. When the rain of frogs happened, I couldn’t care less what happened to anyone. That was entirely pointless.
I saw it once and had no desire to see it again. But I think it could have been improved if it hadn’t been dragged out for such a friggin’ long time. The length just seemed unnecessary to me. And the part where all the characters are listening to the same song at the same time and singing along to it was so contrived that I could do nothing but roll my eyes.
Interesting that it would generate such ire. I loved this movie… I might consider it a flawed masterpiece, since it was longer than hell, but I truly loved it. I thought Tom Cruise was unbelievable, and I don’t usually like him. I thought the kid who played Stanley was fantastic, the numerous references to the Exodus verse (8:2) about the rain of frogs, the little hints about Freemasonry (Ricky Jay’s character), the culture of misogyny in the “Seduce and Conquer” group and the tyrannical and condescending woman that works there (you only hear her on the cell phone)… I don’t know.
I compare it to Short Cuts, another movie that a whole lot of people seem to hate, but I thought the characters were much more palatable in this one. Just casting my vote in the “pro” column.
Yeah, that scene is one of my biggest problems with it - see also the scene with the male nurse (Phil Parma/Philip Seymour Hoffman) on the phone with the Seduce and Destroy salesdroid, and talking about “You see, in a movie, this is the scene where…”
I have very mixed feelings about Magnolia, but overall I didn’t really care for it. I’ve only seen it once, and never could work up the desire to watch it again to figure out what I liked or didn’t like. Neither could I work up the energy to really hate it. I love many of the actors in the film and I absolutely adored Boogie Nights. I could see what he was going for with the film, but it left me cold. It’s just a big ol’ void in my brain. On the other hand, I know lots of people who loved the movie and were incredibly moved by it.
i though magnolia was a special film. i was totally engrossed during the whole movie. plus, it just had something i can’t describe. it just clicked with me.
i’ve recommended it to a few people and they’ve all hated it, though. one said it was the worst movie he’s ever seen. so who knows.
