There is no ingenious and life-changing philosophy behind Magnolia. Actually most of the stories had a dry prosaism that altogether COULD have been shortened. [Magnolia: The never-ending movie?]
The director's a kid, barely out of his 20s, with an ego probably rivaling Spielberg. He extracts what little wisdom there is out of those 20 someodd years, and tells ME about what I should get out of life? A topic too large for a kid, that in effect is only some generalized concept to have no regrets and talk to your old man before he crusts over on his deathbed.
The actors [Tom Cruise, ever the opportunist] were involved because P.T. had some leverage and momentary status after Boogie Nights [notice how he's on vacation from the face of the Earth in 2001] and thought it'd be pretty cutting edge to have characters that swear a lot. [There's nothing wrong with the F-word, but notice how irritatingly repetitious it becomes as the hours drag....the english language is vast and could have been used with much more color regarding insults than just breathing out f--- every other second.]
The movies gestating our society today were made by directors who knew a few people rather than being chosen out of raw talent. Back in the day movies were actually ABOUT something. Movies used to have plot. Today the high culture bracket like Ebert and his kind get some rise out of the wandering cancer/suicide/loneliness set-up, as over used as it is.
Sure, go ahead and do the intersecting-story thing, it's the fad nowadays. But it was done much better with Go -- which was funny, interesting, had much less severely pathetic characters, and although not a classic it at least didn't have that "wing-it" script quality. It was much tighter and vastly more clever. Magnolia is nothing more than an arrogant high schooler's perception into adult life. [The IQ factor must be low in 2001 for Magnolia to get 8.1 on the IMDb tracker.] People today just eat this s--- up.
Because that's basically all it is.
The director's a kid, barely out of his 20s, with an ego probably rivaling Spielberg. He extracts what little wisdom there is out of those 20 someodd years, and tells ME about what I should get out of life? A topic too large for a kid, that in effect is only some generalized concept to have no regrets and talk to your old man before he crusts over on his deathbed.
The actors [Tom Cruise, ever the opportunist] were involved because P.T. had some leverage and momentary status after Boogie Nights [notice how he's on vacation from the face of the Earth in 2001] and thought it'd be pretty cutting edge to have characters that swear a lot. [There's nothing wrong with the F-word, but notice how irritatingly repetitious it becomes as the hours drag....the english language is vast and could have been used with much more color regarding insults than just breathing out f--- every other second.]
The movies gestating our society today were made by directors who knew a few people rather than being chosen out of raw talent. Back in the day movies were actually ABOUT something. Movies used to have plot. Today the high culture bracket like Ebert and his kind get some rise out of the wandering cancer/suicide/loneliness set-up, as over used as it is.
Sure, go ahead and do the intersecting-story thing, it's the fad nowadays. But it was done much better with Go -- which was funny, interesting, had much less severely pathetic characters, and although not a classic it at least didn't have that "wing-it" script quality. It was much tighter and vastly more clever. Magnolia is nothing more than an arrogant high schooler's perception into adult life. [The IQ factor must be low in 2001 for Magnolia to get 8.1 on the IMDb tracker.] People today just eat this s--- up.
Because that's basically all it is.