Review of Magnolia (1999) by Russelx F — 08 Oct 2015

Magnolia a movie produced, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Magnolia ties together multiple narrative stories in this 3-hour production. Theme in the movie is seen as parental neglect and abuse. A good aspect of the film is the editing and the shots taken. It creates a good flow of the movie and the consistency of how fast the movie went. The Overall performance was good I find, however, the some scenes were random and maybe irrelevant which did slow down the film and affect my experience toward it. The acting was amazing and would say that Tom Cruise was the MVP both his acting and the character he played were both amazing in the film. Then we see the cop, John C. Reily, who played a good cop performance. Now the two weakest characters I found were Macy's and Moore. Macy's character, the whiz kid Donnie Smith, didn't impact as much. His scenes and his character were random all through the movie. Although he fits the theme of the movie as we see his back story explained. William H. Macy although a good actor his performance as this character didn't draw much attention and I find didn't seem all that relevant in the movie. Moore's character was a lot of the time mad and flipping people off and being all crazy though out the film. Maybe without her in the film, the film would've been tighter and maybe would've been a better overall performance. John C Reily's voice over in the film, I find, to be the second best part of the movie. Although he comes off as pretentious and religious, Paul Thomas Anderson, uses his monologue to create a feeling like we were actually his partner in crime is the film. The near ending of the film, the other whiz kid, Stanley and his interaction with his father was really weak. We see at the end of the film many resolutions found in each of the individual characters problems. His interaction mixed in it was flat and could've been a more powerful and meaningful dialogue between the two. The best performance, of course, in the film was Tom Cruise and his character. His monologue and scenes all taking in one shot was near impossible not to get drawn in and really intrigued with this character. Overall I rate this film 4/5 and would watch again.