Nymphomaniac

Year: 2013 (Vol. I, Vol. II)
Running time: 117 minutes (Vol. I), 124 minutes (Vol. II)
Certificate: 18 (Vol. I, Vol. II)
Language: English
Screenplay: Lars von Trier
Director: Lars von Trier
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Connie Nielson, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Jamie Bell, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth, Michael Pas

On another sexual escapade.

Nymphomaniac is not a sexy film. It is a rather joyless examination of the life of a woman in thrall to her biological impulses. Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is found bruised and bleeding in an alley by Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård). When she convinces him not to call an ambulance or the police, he helps her back to his nearby apartment to clean up and recover a little. This is the setting over which Joe tells Seligman (and by extension, us) her life story and how it has been influenced by a condition she refuses to describe as sex addiction, insisting instead on the term nymphomania.

There are many sexual encounters described by Joe (played as a young woman by Stacy Martin), many of them seemingly designed to shock, as you might expect from von Trier. Sex in Joe's world rarely seems to be a thing that brings a great deal of pleasure, be it a difficult encounter losing her virginity to Jerôme (Shia LaBeouf), through a moment tempting a man on a train trying to get back home to his wife to conceive, to having sex while grieving her dead father (Christian Slater).

Slowly becoming friends.

But I don't think we're meant to pity Joe; she takes power from her sexuality and if she appears to lack empathy at times (particularly during one scene where she is confronted with the wrath of Mrs. H (Uma Thurman), who's husband is cheating on her with Joe), it's worth remembering that every single one of the men have a choice to have sex with Joe or not, so it's difficult to really judge her for the shits she does not give.

We return fairly frequently to Joe and Seligman, and Seligman has a habit of interrupting the narrative to bring up some random subject that he thinks has familiarities to the events happening in Joe's life. This can be frustrating for Joe and sometimes for us, because (and I'm assuming it's intended this way by von Trier) for every meaningful insight he puts forth, there is another that is ludicrous, and Joe and Seligman spend some time debating the merits of his various asides. As stupid as his rambling sometimes is, you do get a feeling the two of them are taking tentative steps from being strangers to friends.

As we move from Vol. I to Vol. II Joe's life story continues and Gainsbourg takes on both the narrator and flashback roles. Joe's life goes to some very difficult places through the second half, not least an extended period of sadomasochism with K (or 'the Master') (Jamie Bell). Joe ends up working for L (Willem Dafoe), a businessman employing Joe to collect unpaid debts, using her knowledge and experience of sex and desire to expose unpleasant tendencies those owing money have, leaving them open to blackmail.

Joe offers no apology for who she is. Nor should she.

Eventually we catch up to where we found Joe at the start, and it turns out she's beaten in that alley thanks to Jerôme (the older version of which is played by Michael Pas), following a failed attempt to shoot him (Seligman points out it's because she hadn't set the gun correctly before shooting).

The ending annoys me intensely. After their long discussion, Joe seems to have genuinely found friendship - a human connection that isn't about sex. If fact, Seligman has confirmed all the way through that he just isn't sexual in nature. So when Joe goes to sleep happy, for what we suspect is the first time in a long time, it is distressing in the extreme to find Seligman waking her up in the middle of the night to have sex. I was hungry for Joe to feel the contentment that can come from positive human interaction, and out of the blue, contrary to everything he'd said, he ruined it.

Joe indulges herself.

Joe may be a nymphomaniac, but that still gives nobody the right to assume they can have sex with her. Seligman's confused "But you've fucked thousands of men" as Joe, heartbroken over losing her new friend as quickly as she had gained him, calmly and sadly sets the gun as he had demonstrated not long before and shoots him, gives voice to the assumptions of men everywhere that promiscuity somehow forfeits a woman's right to say no.

It's not unrealistic, and the point it makes (men, almost always, are pigs) is an overwhelmingly valid one, but god damn it, I just wanted Joe to find a little happiness with her new friend.

Not bad films, and Gainsbourg, Slater and Thurman in particular give standout performances, but I don't have an interest in ever seeing them again.

Score:
Nymphomaniac Vol. I: 6/10
Nymphomaniac Vol. II: 5/10

I find myself in the minority, as others seem to hold the films in high regard, judging by these reviews from Geoffrey at The Independent and Peter at The Guardian (although to be honest I often find myself at odds with Peter Bradshaw).

Minority Report

Year: 2002
Running time: 145 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Cruise, Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Neal McDonough, Daniel London, Lois Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Stormare, Mike Binder, Arye Gross, Ashley Crow

Along with A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report kicked off Steven Spielberg's later career. Watching any of these three, but this one in particular, you get the feeling that, having proved himself one of the masters of cinema alongside Kurosawa, Coppola and Scorsese (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) and also a master of popcorn event cinema up there with Cameron, Lucas and Jackson (Jaws, Indiana Jones), he's now having a little more fun, legacy forever secured. As a result, Minority Report feels fresh even though Spielberg is no stranger to science fiction, blending the cinematic maestro Spielberg with the blockbusting crowd-pleaser version.

Anderton at work.

Thanks to the psychic gifts of three precognitive humans ('precogs'), led by Agatha (Samantha Morton), who have the ability to foresee murder, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) heads up Washington D.C.'s precrime division, arresting people for murder before the murder has actually taken place. The success of precrime is obvious, with the state being murder-free since the division was established. Pre-determined murder is non-existent, with only sudden 'crimes of passion' giving Anderton and co any work to do.

In a bravura early set-piece the workings of precrime are established; the pre-cogs 'see' the murder and these visions are projected onto a screen from their minds and captured for the precrime team to work with. The names of the perpetrator and victim are also given. Using innovative touch-screen tech that looked futuristic back in 2002, but certainly not too far outside the realms of possibility nowadays, Anderton searches through the images for clues as to the means, method and location of the murder. Once they find enough clues to establish what's going to happen and where, they rush to the scene to arrest the person before they commit the crime, for 'future murder'.

Emboldened by the success, director of precrime Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) is pushing to extend the division beyond Washington D.C., taking it 'national'. This has triggered an investigation into the suitability of precrime by the Justice Department, headed by Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell). There is plenty of scope for moral complexity with this set up (the film is inspired, as so much great science fiction is, by a story by Philip K. Dick), and that's before we even fill in some of Anderton's back story.

Anderton is a grieving father, his young son abducted from a busy public swimming pool leading to the collapse of his marriage and Anderton becoming dependent on drugs to get through the day, while at night he re-watches home videos of his wife and son over and over. When Witwer agrees the system works perfectly and the flaw is human, this is precisely what he means.

Two things happen to bring Anderton's world crashing down around him; firstly, Witwer discovers his drug habit, but secondly, and more crucially, the latest murder seen by the precogs shows Anderton himself murdering a man named Leo Crow (Mike Binder). Anderton has no choice but to run ("Everybody runs", goes the repeated refrain) and find a way prove his innocence in the light of the damning evidence that has been used by the precrime team to catch and convict so many others.

On the run for a murder he's not (yet) committed.

Minority Report is a blend of sci-fi actioner and noir thriller, as slowly Anderton and Witwer uncover a conspiracy involving the fallibility of the precogs' visions and murder to silence a grieving mother. It's wonderful stuff; Spielberg blends the two styles beautifully, investing in character, story and weaving the mystery around the astoundingly-staged action, the visuals, while incredible, always in service to the story and plot, building the future D.C. around the events onscreen.

Music and camerawork complement each other perfectly, particularly around a nail biting sequence involving little robotic spiders scanning eyes to ID everyone in a building, the camera moving over the top of the action in a scene that feels downright European in it's construction, in spite of the American-ness of everything else. One of the best things Spielberg ever did was team up with the extraordinary cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and the blue-tinged, slightly washed-out look of the future of Minority Report is incredibly effective, giving the film a look that is unique to it.

The bravura set pieces and extraordinary look of the film sit alongside a Maltese Falcon-type layered, noir-ish story that is faultlessly executed and satisfyingly told.

Score: 8/10

I had assumed I'd overrated Minority Report when looking at other reviews (I sometimes seem to score Spielberg higher than others), but it seems I'm right on the money when considering these reviews from Roger Ebert and Kirk at The Hollywood Reporter.

Changeling

Year: 2008
Running time: 141 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: J. Michael Straczynski
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Gattlin Griffith, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner

Christine tries desperately to get the help she needs.

Changeling seemed like a pretty big deal when it was released in 2008. As a director, Clint Eastwood can range from competent-yet-uninspiring (American Sniper, Sully), to astonishing (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) and Changeling appeared to be an example of the latter, but in the decade and change since, it isn't usually remembered as one of his best. There was a buzz about it and it got a decent critical reception (Empire has been known to give away its five-star 'Unmissable' rating a little too easily sometimes, and while not quite an Attack of the Clones five-star misstep, the review of Changeling did overrate it a tad).

Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, shining brighter than everyone, as usual) is a single mother in 1928 L.A. She comes home from work one day to find her 9 year-old son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) missing. She goes to the police for help, and the search begins. After five months, the LAPD claim Walter has been found, and mother and son are reunited publicly, the police taking every opportunity they can for some positive publicity. The only problem is, Christine can see, clearly, that the boy they've brought to her isn't her son. Eager to maintain the positive boost to their reputation, the LAPD flat-out shut her down, telling her that it definitely is her son.

Christine has her nagging doubts and worst fears confirmed.

Nowhere to turn to, Christine finds her way to Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malcovich), a preacher well aware of the corruption running through the core of the police department. He takes up Christine's cause as his own, and standing up to the authorities when they commit her to a mental asylum to get her out of the way.

Part of the film also follows a discovery at a dilapidated farmstead, where a horrific tale offers a clue to the true whereabouts of Walter.

The film takes in several genres, moving smoothly from a missing persons drama, to noir, through horror to a courtroom drama. The characters are generally quite one-dimensional, so I think this changing of genre makes little difference to them; perhaps if there was more complexity to them, it would be more jarring. It's a competently told story, based on true events, and Jolie is magnificent, but the no-frills, somewhat pedestrian film-making makes it much less memorable than it might have been.

Score: 6/10

Reviews out there certainly covered a number of varied opinions; not only was there the 5-star Empire review, but there is also this review from Dana at Slate, who was about as impressed as I was, and this one from Christopher at The New Republic, and he declared it the worst film of the year, which I though was a bit over the top.

Face/Off

Year: 1997
Running time: 138 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Mike Werb, Michael Colleary
Director: John Woo
Starring: John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon, Dominique Swain, Nick Cassavetes

Sean Archer as Caster Troy: Still not having any fun.

This is it, dear readers. The lunatic pinnacle the ridiculous '90s action craze. The highest of concepts, the most ridiculous of stories. The most overblown performances. And some of the most scorching action visuals ever committed to film. The recent announcement that a remake is in the works is nonsensical. How can this ludicrous perfection ever be improved? Surely it's tantamount to blasphemy to even consider it? The two movies of the time that came closest to matching Face/Off for insanity were probably Con Air and Starship Troopers. I love them both, but Face/Off towers above them with ease.

John Woo is up there as one of the best directors of action we've ever had, but prior to Face/Off his output while in America hadn't measured up to the best of the films he had made before moving to the US. For Face/Off, everything finally came together.

Caster Troy (Nicholas Cage) is a Villain. Capital V. Hell, the whole word should be upper case. Murder, terrorism, drugs, Caster is just living his best evil life. A thorn in his side however, is super-serious cop Sean Archer (John Travolta). Since Troy accidentally killed his young son Michael (Myles Jeffrey), Archer has had a singular mission to obsess over: take down Caster Troy. In an astonishing opening set piece most films would save for the climax, Archer and his team finally take down Troy, landing him in a coma and capturing his brother Pollux  (Alessandro Nivola).

You'd think Archer would feel like celebrating, a least a little, after that wouldn't you? But no, when his colleagues give him a round of applause, he snaps at them, because of course catching Troy was never going to bring back his son, and he feels just as shitty about it as he ever did.

The problem is, before he went to sleep, naughty Caster planted a giant bomb, and nobody knows where, except Caster and Pollux. So naturally, the go to move here is to use plastic surgery to alter Archer into Troy and then swapping their faces. Not in some clever Mission Impossible mask kind of way, but by actually swapping faces. Then dump Archer into the most maximum of maximum security prisons to pose as Caster to find the location of the bomb from Pollux.

Typically understated moment of action.

This is, obviously, bonkers. But, watching Cage pretending to be Travolta's character pretending to be Cage's character in that full-on bug-eyed way that only Cage can do, you very quickly come to the realisation that it is actually a stroke of genius. And then it gets ever more ridiculous, because having his face cut off caused Troy to wake up from his coma, and he proceeds to force the orchestrators of this plan to alter his body and give him Archer's face. And then murders everybody that knows about it and destroys all the evidence.

Having taken over Archer's life, the scene in the prison when Cage playing Archer playing Troy sees Travolta playing Troy playing Archer for the first time is so much fun. The fact that it is played completely straight just makes it even better. Left to rot in prison as Caster Troy, Archer has an uphill struggle to escape and reclaim his life back from his nemesis. The rest of Face/Off is the story of how he goes about this, and it's every bit as over-the-top and bombastic as you could wish for: The prison escape turns everything up to 11. A shoot out with the police during which the gangsters are desperately trying to protect a young boy named Adam (David McCurley) which turns out to be Caster's son. There is some masterful framing at work, as Woo puts young Adam standing on some lights in the floor, listening to Somewhere Over the Rainbow on headphones while all hell breaks loose around him. The Woo signature of doves is present and correct, heralding the final showdown in a beautifully atmospheric church. Even the obvious use of stunt doubles in the crash at the end of the climactic speedboat chase doesn't spoil it too much (you read that right: Face/Off ends in a speedboat chase, because of course it does).

It's overblown, it's ridiculous, sometimes it's just plain weird (there is much face stroking going on for some reason), but, somehow, against all the odds, Face/Off works.

Score: 8/10

The brilliance and ridiculousness of Face/Off is not lost on others, as seen in these reviews by Tom at the A.V. Club and Benoit at Dead End Follies.

Cars

Year: 2006 (Cars), 2011 (Cars 2), 2017 (Cars 3)
Running time: 117 minutes (Cars), 106 minutes (Cars 2), 102 minutes (Cars 3)
Certificate: PG (Cars), U (Cars 2, Cars 3)
Language: English
Screenplay: Dan Fogelman, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, Jorgen Klubien (Cars), Ben Queen (Cars 2), Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson, Mike Rich (Cars 3)
Directors: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft (Cars), John Lasseter, Bradford Lewis (Cars 2), Brian Fee (Cars 3)
Starring (voices): Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Jenifer Lewis, Paul Dooley, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger, Michael Keaton, Richard Petty, Jeremy Piven, Bob Costas, Darrell Waltrip, Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Tuturro, Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper, Nathan Fillion, Armie Hammer

McQueen finds the mentor he never knew he needed.

The Cars franchise has always been lesser Pixar. I mean, it's still imaginative brilliance, but it's never reached the highs of most of the studio's other output. It's always been a little strange to me, then, that the first movie spawned two sequels. It was a bit of a passion project for Pixar head honcho John Lasseter, and so I suppose that could be a reason. I'm determined to not let Lasseter being tarred by the 'me too' brush ruin my enjoyment of it too much, because, as I mentioned in the Rain Man review, a film is made by more than one person, and there is a hell of a lot of great people at Pixar, and many of them worked on the Cars franchise.

Set in a human-less world populated instead with sentient cars, it is certainly an unusual concept. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a rookie race car looking to win the Piston Cup. His two rivals are honourable old champion with the big sponsorship deal McQueen is hoping to win The King (Richard Petty) and a car bitter from a lifetime spent in second place in The King's shadow and willing to play dirty to win, Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton). McQueen is clearly talented, but when we first meet him he is obnoxious with it. Betting he can win the final race and bag the Piston Cup without changing his tyres, a blowout on the final lap sees him just scraping a three-way tie with The King and Chick. The stage is set for a deciding race between the three of them.

Chick Hicks: A dangerous opponent.

Having not yet learned his lesson, McQueen pushes those around him away and Mack, the truck that hauls him around everywhere (voiced by Pixar lucky charm John Ratzenberger) to the point of exhaustion. A mishap in the middle of the night leaves McQueen stranded in the middle of nowhere and in his panic he crashes into a sleepy backwater known as Radiator Springs, wrecking the road as he does so.

And this is where Cars finds its heart. Radiator Springs is populated with a cracking set of characters, where McQueen immediately gets on the wrong side of the cantankerous old Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who sets him the task of resurfacing the road he damaged in lieu of jailtime. Out of the cast of oddballs, there are two that stand out most significantly in addition to Doc; Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), a Porsche running the local motel and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), a rusty tow truck who takes a shine to McQueen early on and before long becomes his best friend.

Mater gets to know McQueen's new rival.

During his time in Radiator Springs, McQueen finds an opportunity to appreciate the slower things in life, and as he changes his outlook he wins the townspeoplecars over and begins to feel at home. This film and its makers have an obvious love for cars and the times when driving across a country was done for the ride, not just to get to somewhere else as quickly as possible, and it's made with such affection, that you can’t help wishing for those times too, although, like McQueen, I've never actually witnessed such a time.

The heart of the story may be in Radiator Springs, but the standout set pieces are the races themselves; incredible looking and thrilling - everything Days of Thunder was supposed to be. Even a lesser Pixar film set in a world populated with talking cars with giant eyes, they still somehow manage to create a final act that brings a tear to my eye, as McQueen learns and demonstrates the value of friendship, empathy and just being kind.

Finn McMissile demonstrates how he got his name.

The sequel is bonkers, and straight out of leftfield, even for Pixar. For Cars 2 is a spy movie. With cars. The focus shifts to Mater as he is accidentally recruited as a spy by suave agents Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer). McQueen is competing in a new series of high-profile races to publicise a more sustainable fuel pioneered by Sir Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard).

Mater assists in uncovering a conspiracy to make the new super fuel appear unsafe by making it appear like it causes engines to blow dangerously mid-race. A conspiracy run by what Mater refers to as 'Lemons' - cars that are unreliable, constantly breaking down and having to source spare parts.

Some quality comedy is mined from the rivalry between McQueen and Italian Formula One car Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), and the film looks glorious, but it's just such a strange diversion from the tone set by the first film, that it never quite convinces. Perhaps 'convinces' is the wrong word to use when talking about films about sentient spy cars, but I'm sure you know what I mean. It lacks something that the first film had.

McQueen struggles to catch new hot-shot Jackson Storm.

Something that Cars 3 happily finds again. No longer the fresh-faced rookie, Cars 3 finds McQueen struggling to keep up with the new and improved racers. Pushing himself against new rival Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), McQueen suffers a horrendous crash and isolates himself in Radiator Springs throughout his long recovery. McQueen's old sponsors Rust-Eze have been sold to Sterling (Nathan Fillion), and McQueen sets himself up in Sterling's state-of the-art training centre to get back into shape.

Working with racing trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo), McQueen refuses to accept what seems obvious to everyone; he'll never be as fast as Jackson Storm. This is where Cars 3 begins to evoke the original in a really rather poetic and beautiful way, as McQueen's focus shifts from trying to get faster to teaching Cruz to drive on sand, and discovering more about his late mentor, Doc Hudson. Doc's old mentor Smokey (Chris Cooper) explains to McQueen how much their friendship meant to him.

Working with Smokey, Cruz and McQueen start to build technique to try to overcome McQueen's speed disadvantage, and following an earlier conversation where Cruz revealed she had always wanted to be a racer but could never find the courage, it starts to become clear that Cruz can beat McQueen when she finds her confidence. The finale of Cars 3 also borrows from the first film, as McQueen moves out of the picture, leaving Cruz to take centre stage and beat Storm to the finish line.

McQueen and Cruz, bonding while training.

The three films are chockfull of gorgeous imagery, lovely character work and thrilling set pieces, but, especially with the middle part that lacks some of the heart you can usually take for granted in a Pixar movie, they are decidedly second-tier Pixar.

Score:
Cars: 7/10
Cars 2: 6/10
Cars 3: 7/10

While the general opinion out there tends to mirror mine (see the IMDb scores), there are some out there that have a different opinion. This review of Cars by James at ReelViews skews close to my opinion, but Todd at The Hollywood Reporter overrates Cars 2 somewhat, and David at Rolling Stone prefers Cars 3 to both its predecessors by some margin.

No Country for Old Men

Year: 2007
Running time: 122 minutes
Certificate: 15
Language: English
Screenplay: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald

To live or to die, by the flip of a coin.

Following a run of fast-paced, occasionally absurd comedies (not that that's a bad thing), in 2007 the Coens reminded the world that they are also masters of cold and relentlessly brutal drama. Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel, it's a disturbing look at amoral criminality in Texas.

We open with police officer Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) reminiscing about days gone by, recognising that the crimes he has to deal with in his twilight years are so excessively violent as to be beyond his understanding.

Just such a monster is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a killer so lacking in morality that for him murder is little more than a chance to play an interesting game of chance, preferring to use a cattle gun to murder people. It may be his shocking haircut that causes him to act so dreadfully, but we'll never know.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) discovers the aftermath of what appears to have been a drug deal which ended badly. Amongst the bodies, he also finds $2 million in cash. Knowing that he shouldn't, he takes it and runs. Chigurh is employed to retrieve the money and begins to track Moss, and the scene is set for a tense and sustained game of cat and mouse.

Ed Tom Bell knows he can't hold back the tide of darkness.

Bell is also trying to get to Moss, if only to try to offer some kind of protection from Chigurh, if he can, resigned to the fact that the assassin is simply another part of the wave of terrifying, remorseless, uncaring violent criminality against which he is largely powerless. It's a chilling and depressing thing to consider, but considering the world we live in in 2019, where brutality, amorality and a callous disregard for facts and the welfare of everything and everyone is putting and keeping people in power all over the world from America and my own fair homeland, through Russia, to Brazil, it's proven sadly prescient.

The Coens double down on the bleakness as the story comes to its conclusion, following an extended masterclass in extracting tension from the slow chase across the American south. It's a very, very good film, possibly the Coen's best. If not their best, it's certainly up there. But I don't like it as much as some of their others. I prefer Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowski. No Country for Old Men is probably better made than all of them, but I prefer my Coens a little less bleak. It's highly recommended, a must-watch even, but just not as much fun to watch.

Score: 8/10

I find myself outnumbered in my opinion. It seems other reviews put No Country for Old Men ahead of pretty much every other Coen effort. See these reviews from Peter at The Guardian and Christopher at The Atlantic.

Magnolia

Year: 1999
Running time: 188 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Jeremy Blackman, Melora Walters, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Phillip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Melinda Dillon, Michael Bowen, Henry Gibson, Ricky Jay, Alfred Molina

Frank says goodbye to his father.

I'd already seen Boogie Nights and was blown away by it. Something in addition to that wonderful multiple-story-strands-intersecting type of film that I've always been a bit of a sucker for. I think it was the editing. Watching Boogie Nights felt so kinetic, like the camera didn't seem to stay still for a second, moving from one scene to another relentlessly. This was the impression the film gave, and I think the camerawork combined with the editing gave it that feel. With Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson honed and perfected a style he tried out in Boogie Nights and so it has that feel of restless movement again, but this time the director improved these aspects in every way.

Multiple characters and story strands overlap during the course of 24-hours in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, brought briefly together by chance and unusual weather. TV producer Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is dying of cancer. Old, and living entirely in bed, he has nothing to do but rest, think and ruminate on the past. He is married to Linda Partridge (Julianne Moore), who constantly appears to be in the middle of a meltdown. He is being looked after by nurse Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman). After listening to Earl talk about his estranged son, he attempts to make contact in the hope of reconciling them. Earl's son is Frank T. J. Mackey (Tom Cruise). Frank is a successful misogynist, making a living running stage shows / workshops for lonely men wanting to pick up women.

Jimmy Gator (Phillip Baker Hall) is a TV personality, hosting a quiz show featuring child contestants. Like Earl, Jimmy is also dying of cancer - he has about 2 months left. He is estranged from his daughter Claudia (Melora Walters), who hates him for some reason - we later learn the reason, which then causes his wife Rose (Melinda Dillon) to walk out on him. Jimmy feels suicidal. On Jimmy's show an extremely bright young boy named Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) is on a winning streak, while ex-extremely bright child quiz show star "Quiz Kid" Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) has grown up and is now watching Stanley on TV while sitting in a bar lamenting unrequited love.

Conscientious police officer Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) is called to investigate reports of a disturbance at Claudia Gator's house and finds himself falling for her while spending the rest of his day dealing with a homicide and losing his gun in the process.

Jim and Claudia make tentative first steps.

The way Anderson weaves these characters around each other during the course of the film works wonderfully, and some scenes are hugely emotional. There is a theme throughout the film, which focuses on regret, and the long-reaching consequences our actions have on others - Linda Partridge regrets cheating on Earl throughout their relationship now that he is close to death, while he, on his deathbed, regrets cheating on a previous wife. Jimmy Gator regrets his actions that caused his daughter to hate him so. Even Frank, when he catches up to his dying father, whom he hated so much, crumbles, the regret now that it's too late to do anything plain on his anguished face. It's astonishingly powerful, and might still, 20 years on, be the best acting of Tom Cruise's career.

The film also makes reference to strange coincidences and unusual events that cause one event to unexpectedly cross paths with another. During the final hour, an event takes place that cause the hitherto unrelated strands to interact with each other, but this is only what Magnolia is about on the surface - there is much depth beneath. Frogs rain down on L.A. in an apparent biblical condemnation of these lost souls, but it's hard to read it like that - we've spent a long time in the company of these characters, and we know them a little. We know they're just alone, struggling with their past, desperate for love.

There are some left turns that could have gone very wrong, but Anderson makes them work beautifully. Aimee Mann provides the entire soundtrack and there is a moment in the film where the entire cast join in and sing along with the song Wise Up. It could have been so weird. It's wonderful.

But the absolute best thing about Magnolia is the ending. Focused on regret, death and some of the most difficult parts of human relationships, one of the more depressing moments is when Claudia, having agreed to go to dinner with a besotted Jim, loses her courage and runs out. The final scene of the film is just beautiful, where Jim arrives at Claudia's apartment and starts to explain how he wants to be there for her and to help her, his voice fades out and the camera focuses on her, and just before we cut to credits, she smiles and Mann's Save Me kicks off. It's such a poignantly joyful note to go out on, that you're uplifted in spite of the difficult subject matter that dominates the film's 3-hour running time.

Score: 9/10

Roger Ebert thought Magnolia was a great film - he even reviewed it twice. This is his second review, 9 years after its release and Nathan at The Dissolve compares it to Boogie Nights to examine Anderson's emerging film-making style.