4/4
Magnolia is a powerhouse. A beast of a movie. An emotional colossus. A thematic universe. I would have no problem calling Magnolia the greatest film I have ever seen.
I first saw Magnolia a few years ago; I was barely 16. Despite its wrenching and draining 3 hours and 8 minutes, I watched it again the next day. I had an immediate knowledge that I had never seen a more brutally truthful movie. Around 3 years later, I still hold it in my top three favorite movies, and I still haven't cracked its iron shell.
There is a lot to manage here: paying attention to character connections, soaking in the style and atmosphere, deciphering the great thematic enigma, controlling one's own emotions...
Indeed, there is no film tougher to handle and make sense of than Magnolia. It has been criticized for being tragically meaningless, a sobbing senseless wreckage. But I don't see it that way. There are portraits of humanity in this movie, and I know that there are meaningful strings tying it all together. There are probably a number of themes--Paul Thomas Anderson's goal wasn't to speak on any single topic or message, but rather to provide the ultimate encapsulation of human existence in California's San Fernando Valley, where Anderson himself grew up. To display humanity so completely, one must deal with many different issues; perhaps each character is fighting the extreme circumstance of a given human experience, each of them different from the others.
Now that I consider it, forgiveness arises in many stories:
-Jim the cop must forgive his detainees
-Claudia must forgive her molesting father
-Linda must forgive herself for her own marital indecency
-Earl must forgive himself before dying for his marital indecency
-Frank must forgive his selfish, absent father
-God must forgive Egypt/California for its sins?
Perhaps we have something here.
The style and mood switches throughout the film. Many times it is jumpy and stressful, with whipping pans of the camera, loud music, moving bodies and alternate storylines interjecting on each other. At other moments, it is still and hypnotic; we hear Earl's long, tortured deathbed speech dragging into another scene. We stare silently at Tom Cruise's obliterating cry, the camera mercilessly staying on him for way too long, leaving us in pieces by the time it's over. No music plays as the frogs fall from the sky, none other than the music of frogs slapping and splatting against pavement at a hundred miles per hour. The realism of this surreal moment is terrifyingly overwhelming. This is what Paul Thomas Anderson does; he creates scenes that cross us as surreal but then dig into the deeper parts of ourselves, and we experience them as truth.
Stanley the kid:
He is a kid-genius being exploited by his father and game show host Jimmy Gator and all of America through his participance on the show "What Do Kids Know?". He genuinely loves accumulating knowledge; it's not that that he feels taken advantage of for. It's the money he wins on the show that goes to his dad; it's the laughs America puts out upon hearing him speak his mind; it's the archetype America places on his face--the face of a human, not an object. Stanley is able to paint a devastated look across Jimmy Gator's face with the truth he speaks when he addresses the inhumanity of modern media. In some ways, Stanley is the wisest, although youngest, character in the film. When the frogs fall, he is the only one who stays content: he glances around, calmly, exclaiming "This happens. Things like this really happen" with a smile. He is satisfied with the chaos--more than just accepting of it, which is itself more than any other character can manage. Something about his learning has brought him improbable wisdom.
Frank T.J. Mackey:
His soul is stained by the absence of his father, Earl Partridge, during Frank's mother's degeneration and death. He has now created an empire of sexual aggression seminars and merchandise entitled "Seduce and Destroy"; a hurricane of misogyny. Is this to cope with the loss of his mother, particularly the experience of having to watch her suffer and die with him at such a young age, and with no other man to help take care of her? Is this exercising control over women as overcompensation for the lack of control he felt in his mother's situation? He has thoroughly suppressed that time of his life from his mind; he denies his mother's existence to the interviewer, and seems to be confronting thoughts of his father for the first time in decades when the exchange between father and son occurs. Maybe "Seduce", as he affectionately calls it, has pushed the pain of his childhood out of mind, but it certainly hasn't eradicated it: the pain violently contorts his face as he sobs beside the father he hates. It is clearly still fresh and present.
Jim the cop:
He has a simple worldview: he just wants to be loved and accepted. We see his online dating profile, which asks for nothing more than loving acceptance. The one secret he reveals to Claudia is his embarrassment within the squad--his non-acceptance. He must be deeply insecure--he speaks to himself in the car. Or is he speaking to his baton, or his police car? He is looking for somebody to connect with. Why is he so insecure? He is wise, and courageous, and does his job well. He does the right thing. He loves and accepts. And he loves and accepts in the clearest form, at the end--forgiveness.
Quiz Kid Donnie Smith:
Claudia:
Jimmy Gator:
Linda Partridge:
Earl Partridge:
Phil:
In progress..............
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