Hey folks, Harry here and this here is a review of MAGNOLIA, the follow up project from the director of BOOGIE NIGHTS. Paul Thomas Anderson is currently on a roll, two good films in a row and this one... well this one sounds like it's a blast... So we'll just have to wait and see how it fairs after all is said and done. This screening took place quite a whiles back down in Australia. I had some cursory "It's great" "This movie soooo fucking rocks" pieces of email, but nothing that really resembled a review... so here ya go.... Tyler Durden, will you please do the honors...
Hey Harry -
first time writer so I've got to do the usual first time stuff, tell you your column's cool.
the reason I'm writing is that last week I got to see MAGNOLIA, the new one by Paul Thomas Anderson. There was maybe three hundred of us, and PTA was there with his editor Dillon/Dylan (?). He's frighteningly young, a kind of geeky Tarantino-type, made a short speech about this being a rough cut, and warning us that it's long (he wasn't kidding). It runs something over three hours, but Harry I've got to say I could have watched it quite happily for three more.
I should start off by saying I had a pretty good time at Hard Eight and thought Boogie Nights rocked. But this is a serious leap forward. Most of the cast of those films come back for more - William Macy, Philip Seymoor Hoffman, John C Reilly, Julianne Moore, Philip Baker Hall (I think that's his name). And the plot is a kind of Short Cutsy freewheel round LA, dipping in on the lives of the many different characters. And Harry I got to tell ya it's fucking fantastic. The different stories connect in deeply weird but totally cool ways, I don't wanna spoil the big ending but it's a kind of biblical plague type deal that they all go through. It's just an amazing script.
And man o man, the acting. This is just the best group acting I've maybe ever seen. Reilly is brilliant - Oscar time no doubt. There's a young woman in it whose name I don't know (this cut didn't have credits on) plays his junkie girlfriend, and she is gonna be a HUGE star. Jason Robards who's been my hero for years has this ten minute (no shit) death bed speech had me in tears. Philip baker Hall is also brilliant. Just everyone is absolutely superb, even - and this is a serious shocker - Tom Cruise. He's doing a small part and while I'm not his biggest fan I've got to say that this is the best you've ever seen him by far, he just goes all the way. I didn't know he was in it, and the first time you see him is just hysterical.
Yeah, it's very very long, and that's gonna make it tough to sell, but there's not many films nowadays take you into a world that's different and recognisable at the same time, and this one does it. As soon as I could talk I went over and shook Anderson's hand afterwards, told him I'd loved it and asked him how much he was planning to cut. He seemed pleased by how it went, said maybe ten minutes only. Which makes him brave but having seen this he certainly ain't stupid.
So that's it harry. I loved this film, think when it's finished it's gonna be a stone classic. Hope you agree.
Tyler Durden
