MAGNOLIA
1999,
Warner Bros.,
188 min,
USA,
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s mosaic of American life woven through a series of comic and poignant vignettes centers on one day in the San Fernando Valley. A dying father, a trophy wife (Julianne Moore), a caretaker (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a flashy and misogynist self-help guru (Tom Cruise), a police officer in love (John C. Reilly), a boy genius, an ex-boy genius (William H. Macy), a game-show host (Philip Baker Hall) and an estranged daughter (Melora Walters) each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots devolving into one magnificent story.