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Magnolia
24 hours in L.A.; it's raining cats and dogs. Two parallel and intercut stories dramatize men about to die: both are estranged from a grown child, both want to make contact, and neither child wants anything to do with dad. Earl Partridge's son is a charismatic misogynist; Jimmy Gator's daughter is a cokehead and waif. A mild and caring nurse intercedes for Earl, reaching the son; a prayerful and upright beat cop meets the daughter, is attracted to her, and leads her toward a new calm. Meanwhile, guilt consumes Earl's young wife, while two whiz kids, one grown and a loser and the other young and pressured, face their situations. The weather, too, is quirky
29 August 1986
23 June 1963, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
1971, Costa Mesa, California, USA
12 August 1950, Laramie, Wyoming, USA
2 September 1954, Tuba City, Arizona, USA
18 May 1941, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
8 September 1960, Richmond, Virginia, USA
25 March 1988, Los Angeles County, California, USA
April 13, 2009
Just as something so reliably surprising as the weather can modify people's behavior, "Magnolia" encompasses an inter-connective human bond that accepts reality's blind spots. Purity of intention, as the story suggests, is a happy accident that can hit ev
January 15, 2002
You could spend three hours snickering at Anderson's 'What the World Needs Now Is Aimee Mann' metaphysic. But his vision cuts deeper than a lot of folky bathos.
July 21, 2005
All the work is top-notch.
January 10, 2010
...it finally slumps down under its own weight and becomes a shambles. But, dang, it's such an attractive shambles.
April 18, 2011
Short Cuts is clearly the starting point, but not the ending point for a movie that is probably the most overstuffed with ideas of anything in Paul Thomas Anderson's career.
August 22, 2013
As the years pass and we are weathered by universal experiences, the predicaments of Anderson's characters seem less pathetic and more like the plight of everyone we love and admire.
April 27, 2007
What this film may have needed to get on its feet is some honest-to-goodness violence.
January 22, 2010
A decade after its release, P.T. Anderson's emotionally epic Magnolia gets the glorious Blu-ray treatment it deserves. This Altman-esque mosaic follows several disparate L.A. citizens on one rainy day, as they navigate through mistakes and torrenti
June 24, 2006
One of the most enthralling and exhilarating American movies in ages.
March 22, 2002
You don't have to like everything [Anderson] does, but if you enjoy seeing the walls rattled and the roof raised in the Hollywood citadel, you've got to love it.
April 28, 2008
A wonderful mess.
July 19, 2014
Go see it for yourself. And don't be surprised if you want to see it again and again.