Hey folks, Harry here with Mysterio's look at MAGNOLIA. A brilliant film with far more on it's mind than you will ever read in print. I love this film, but have been digesting it ever since BUTT-NUMB-A-THON.... I've been having to take my time with it because... well I choose to. I'm pondering the significance of the seemingly insignificant details in the film that somehow struck me as being significant in a strange sort of way. I highly recommend this film, and... someday soon I'll be putting my thoughts into print about this film and many others coming soon. But for now, I'll leave it to Mister Cuff-links here.... Mysterio...
“A Menacing Merry Christmas” to you and your readers, Harry. For it’s I, Mysterio materializing back out of your subconscious.
Ahhh, the Christmas season is once again upon us. And oh how I do love this season. People EVERYWHERE! Makes my guise in the daytime much less noticeable. Put a Santa cap on over this bulky globe of mine, and no one seems to even notice. So much so, that I able to partake in a rare afternoon matinee of one of the most astonishing films to come out this year. That film being “MAGNOLIA”, that director being, P.T. Anderson.
Now unfortunately I missed the opportunity to have seen it at “Butt-numb-a-thon”, but I’m fortunate enough to keep residence in the two most crime ridden cities (outside Detroit that is), LA & NY, where it’s playing in limited release before going wide in January.
Having watched P.T. grow and establish himself as a filmmaker over the past years, (mostly from the shadows, although our paths have indeed crossed more than once), it’s easy to see why his films are so huge in scope. He has an indelible energy for films, both his as well as others that’s contagious. He loves the camera; he loves both the visual and audible aspect of his actors in their performances, and most of all he loves storytelling.
Now, I’ve been a big fan of P.T.’s, no make that a HUGE fan, of his since viewing his first work, “HARD EIGHT”.
A small film, but intriguingly, brilliant character piece, showcasing some outstanding performances and giving us an insight at what a wonderful ear for dialog P.T. has as a writer. Not to mention how his dramatic visual style would make leaps and bounds into his next feature, “BOOGIE NIGHTS”.
“BOOGIE NIGHTS” proved to be a hugely over-ambitious film. It proved that P.T. could forge ahead with multiple characters, and story lines, and craft them into an engaging work of film. Clearly, P.T. has done his homework, and references to his idols such as Altman & Scorcese, are definitely in evidence here. Having read the script many months prior to the release of the film, I was bowled over by how easy P.T.’s rather large scripts are to read. Everything is on the page, and the characters are easily identifiable through their given prose. I knew that if P.T. had succeeded in making that script as it read, it would become his calling card to the ranks of a highly respected filmmaker. So respected in fact, that Tom Cruise felt the need himself to be a part, any part, in Anderson’s next film.
Now having loved the script, and finished film for “BOOGIE NIGHTS”, I was overjoyed to have received a copy of “MAGNOLIA”, as far back as last May. But as I began to read into the script, a strange feeling overcame me that caused me to stop within the first 20 pages. It wasn’t the fact that it sucked, or I felt indifferent toward the material, or voices presented on the page. It was just the opposite. I felt that with the knowledge I read within the first 20 pages, I knew too much. I did not want to know any more. I felt this was going to be a wonderful experience that I wanted to visualize on the screen first, so I could be overtaken and manipulated by pure joy and surprise. But this came with reservations. Could it possibly be better than “BOOGIE NIGHTS”? Am I setting my expectations too high, consequently dooming my overall opinion of the film? These were questions that I patiently waited on, until the other day when I would finally get the answers to the questions that I had pondered upon over the past months.
*** SLIGHT SPOILERS DOWN BELOW ***
“MAGNOLIA” opens brilliantly with describing strange past accidents that seem to have happened simply by an odd matter of chance. It’s a perfect setup in describing that theme of chance that inherently segues its way into the basis of events, which surround the main characters that we’re introduced to in the film.
From there, we quickly jump from the past to the present where we meet Anderson’s main cast of characters. Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), who’s a dying TV mogul, stricken with cancer, his caring day nurse, Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and his much younger, emotionally, off-balanced wife, Linda (Julianne Moore).
Then we have love struck LAPD cop, Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) who enjoys helping people and having a “good day” at his job; where a routine call later leads him having a “good day” in meeting Claudia (Melora Walters). Claudia, herself is somewhat a beautiful mess, shutting herself out as far as she can from the world outside, by divulging in a high amount of narcotics and loud music.
We also have TV game show host, Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), who hosts a game show for young geniuses who compete intellectually again their adult counterparts. Stanley Spector, is just that one kid whose currently at the point of diminishing the show’s winning record. Then there’s an ex-wiz kid, Donnie Smith (William H. Macy), whose become less the wiz after being struck by lightning, and whose life has suddenly become pre-occupied by the notion of having oral surgery for braces, although he has perfect teeth.
And lastly, is Frank “T.J.” Mackey (Tom Cruise) whose wheeling and dealing self-confidence, through his tapes and seminars, to guys who can’t get laid..
These are the characters in a nutshell, but what’s fascinating is that P.T. has expertly crafted and woven an intricate web where each character has a relationship either knowingly or unknowing to one another. Each with their own personal demons, wrought guilt and insecurities that haunt their daily lives.
The focus or rooted tree of the film centers on Robard’s dying character, Earl. It’s from his character’s illness that each other is a branch from his tree, or a branch from another. Each have they’re own distinctive formations, some longer and more emotionally twisted than others, some not.
But the film really marks a triumph in dealing with human tragedy and the hope and redemption that ultimately succeeds and grows from it.
It’s a intriguing 3 hours of character study, watching each character come to a certain point in their lives where each has made a change. This point comes no less in a surprisingly odd, but genius point where each character sings along to Aimee Mann’s hauntingly “Wise Up”. Mann’s songs seem to compliment the film and their scenes so wonderfully, that’s it’s no wonder P.T. used her songs as a template when writing. Her lyrics are simple and ring true.
Performances are outstanding on all levels, but the one that would have to stand out amongst the crowd, because of the high amount of energy displayed in the character, is that of Cruises’. His performance is the one that you’ve waited to hear about in the sense of a “this is Cruise like you’ve never seen him before” quote. It unfortunately didn’t ring true in last summer’s “Eyes Wide Shut”, but by god, this is him at his best, since “Born on the Forth of July”. It’s a striking performance that commands your attention. His T.J. Mackey begins as such a highly wound ball of energy, inside a hard self-made outer shell, that it’s fascinating to watch his character’s shell slowly crack open, revealing the individual that he once was. In one scene where Mackey is being interviewed, he’s assaulted by questions of his past, which he’s not quite ready to face. Feeling forced to say something, he instead just sits there quietly staring, across from his persecutor. When asked what he’s doing in being non-responsive, his only reply back is, “I’m quietly judging you.” A line that’s said with such power and conviction that the scene just floors you.
It’s my hope that indeed this film finds it’s audience and gets the notice and recognition that it so surely deserves.
The film runs just over 3 hours, and for some may run a bit too long, but it’s a film that demands it. And for those who are patient and willing, “all good things will come to those who wait…”
And by the way, keep your eyes on the skies above when traveling through the San Fernando Valley. Particularly down Magnolia Boulevard.
-Mysterio
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