Paul Thomas Anderson’s career has been peppered with masterpieces such as Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood. Magnolia is probably right at the top of the director’s best list. The over three hours long epic links the fates of several people over the course of 24 hours into an overwhelming body of work with top stars and unforgettable moments. You can now stream Magnolia with a subscription to Amazon Prime. *
Magnolia celebrates life’s big and small miracles
Anderson’s film cast includes dying television magnate Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), sex guru Frank TJ Mackey (Tom Cruise), game show host Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) with cancer, and his drug addict Daughter Claudia (Melora Walters) and child prodigy Stanley (Jeremy Blackman).
In addition to the characters whose paths sometimes fatefully cross as the story progresses, Magnolia is also a shimmering portrait of Los Angeles. In this, the director has miraculous Moments full of overwhelming beauty and sometimes surreal magic built-in.
We don’t want to reveal too much at this point, but even sudden musical interludes and frogs raining from the sky find their place in Anderson’s 3-hour masterpiece.
Tom Cruise trumps with an unusual performance in Magnolia
From the large number of fantastic performers, Tom Cruise in particular stands out as a wacky sex guru. It is probably not by chance that his figure reminds of real Scientology parallels, what the unusual and unique nature of this performance still emphasizes.
Cruise’s Frank is a character the star sadly doesn’t play anymore these days. A personality that is as weird as it is deeply tragic, for whom there seems to be little room between the action roles in Cruise’s current career, which have few rough edges.
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