Magnolia

⭐ 8/10

This is a 3 hour movie, and for 2 hours of it I thought this was the best paced 3 hour movie I had ever seen. The film making is electric, and that is saying a ton for what the content is here.  Its basically 10 or so characters in distinct storylines over the course of a day that intersect in interesting ways.  There is a smart kid in a game show, a home nurse caring for a dying man, an alpha-male motivational speaker that yells about how to get women, a bumbling cop, and more. The movie cuts between them in interesting and quick ways, never leaving one story for too long, with catchy momentum-building pop music playing under it all. The adrenaline of Goodfellas, but based around somewhat normal characters, even if they are dealing with some extraordinary circumstances.

My stupid brain unfortunately only thinks in WeView scores now, and as I began the final hour I could feel half-stars falling off.  The movie really slows down, characters start to give big monologues as if they are all philosophers, and a very very strange weather event occurs.  I like the big swing here, but it all felt too cosmic and high-minded, bordering on pretentious. I have liked basically every Paul Thomas Anderson movie I have seen, and I love a handful of them, but this is an earlier one where it feels like he is trying to get every big idea in his head out there.  Bold, ambitious, lots of classic words to ascribe to an auteurist vision like this.  Unfortunately it didn't work for me.

MVP goes to Tom Cruise with an unhinged performance as an all-time dirtbag. Using the Cruise energy in this way is genius, and he crushes it. Looking forward to Leo in One Battle After Another after seeing another example of PTA using known star-power in interesting ways.