20 Best Movies Over Three Hours Long

Runtime: 3 hours, 9 minutes

The longest film of Paul Thomas Anderson's career, produced when he was just 29, Magnolia is an ensemble drama that follows a group of distantly connected souls blindsided by tragedy, trauma and identity crises. 

A film about terrible parents and biblical forewarnings, Magnolia's cast includes Tom Cruise as a secretive motivational speaker, John C. Reilly as a bumbling cop, William H. Macy as a former child prodigy, and Julianne Moore as a trophy wife who learns she's really in love with her dying husband.

At times darkly funny and in others deeply affecting, Magnolia moves with the pace of a thriller, urgent and twisting, but manages to pack so many compelling character moments into itself as it goes. Much is open to interpretation, but every character, every line, every twist is vital to Anderson's vision. 

Throw in Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a heartbroken nurse for good measure, and what you have with Magnolia is one of the finest performed movies on this list, as well as one of the most emotionally resonant.