7. Magnolia - Paul Thomas Anderson
As you will notice young fledgling directors jumping head first into the ring fire to prove themselves is a reoccurring theme in this feature. Anyone in a highly competitive field is always gnashing at the bit to place themselves as worthy of respect and steal the spotlight for their own. Magnolia is a very much the work of a director strutting like a peacock trying to show his plumage all at once. Much like Quentin Tarantino, Anderson had a huge unexpected hit that accumulated a lot of respect. Boogie Nights was an epic that took place during the transformative era of the adult film industry. It was grand film with a large cast and was skillfully crafted. Boogie Nights was equally comedic, tragic and filled with operatic flourishes. So how did Anderson decide to follow-up this early success? By taking every element in Boogie Nights and amping it up to 11. Magnolia is as out of control and over the top as it can be. It's the product of an amassed ego and follow-up insecurities From the opening monologue voiced by magician Ricky Jay it's clear that Magnolia has pie in the sky Oscar award ceremony ambitions. As the film starts we are introduced to a "life the universe and everything" philosophy pretzel and the opening credit sequence hasn't even rolled yet. This is a dangerous position as a viewer because there are really only two possible outcomes 1. You are about to witness a life changing piece of cinema. 2. You are about to witness a pretentious over the top mess that tries too hard for greatness. Magnolia is definitely a number 2. The largest issue with the film is scope. This is a movie with NINE main characters and THREE interwoven dramatic tragedies . So here we have the operatic qualities of Boogie Nights taken to their bloated extremes. To Anderson's credit he does juggle all these puzzle pieces well. The issue lies in the excessive lentgh of the interweaving stories. It's almost as if he was surrounded by a crew who could not provide criticism and an editor who could not say no to Hollywood's newest whiz kid. There are many scenes that are repetitive and recycle the same themes. This is the most readily apparent with Tom Cruise's character Frank T.J Mackey. Frank has Mommy abandonment issues which he has chosen to deal with in public as a motivational speaker that hosts dating seminars for insecure men. We are treated to Frank's self hating womanizing pep rallies several times during the film. While this provides depth to the character we do not need to extended re-visits to this scenario. This is the mark of a director who is either in love with his material or believes the audience isn't smart enough to get the point without it being hammered home repeatedly . Along these same lines Magnolia allows scenes that go on for countless eternities. There is a lot of dramatic tension wasted by Anderson's inability to let go of a scene. There is a considerable lack of flow to large portions of the film because bloat is misunderstood as epic character development . The best example of this is the extended scene in which John C. Reilly whom plays a police officer visits the home of drug addict he decides to ask out on a date. Watch it for yourself it just doesn't know when to stop. Boogie Nights had a lot of great camera work , sweeping crane shots and long steady cam shots that followed multiple characters in a scene. In Magnolia it feels as if Anderson is pleading for attention with too many camera acrobatics. There are dramatic slow zooms that eat away at the films running time. In one instance I wasn't quite sure if I was going to end up in a microscopic view of William H. Macy's nose hairs in a zoom from across the bar. In another instance it would seem that Anderson was trying to out do himself by filming a single shot scene just to see if he could make it longer than the one in Boogie Nights. Makes me wonder if he handed out awards to himself after it's completion. "The award for longest steadicam single shot in one of my films goes to...ME!!" At any rate I've spent too long here on this subject and I could continue with a Magnolia sized diatribe but I'll provide a summary. Magnolia is like getting a large meal from a would be chef trying to impressive with buffet like quantities and far too many different over spiced flavors.