Magnolia (1999) Rank 3 Reviews

Salon (Charles Taylor)

Even with a stellar cast, director Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights" follow-up flounders without a ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Salon (Charles Taylor)

Time Out

Anderson's meandering multi-story megasoap with a message is over-ambitious, self-conscious, self-indulgent, self-important and clumsy into the bargain. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Time Out

MovieJuice! (Mark Ramsey)

Loneliness and despair run rampant throughout Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia", the follow up to his 1997 hit "Boogie Nights." The story follows the lives of several inhabitants of the San Fernando Valley, each one stumbling around in their own ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at MovieJuice! (Mark Ramsey)

Jason Wallis

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: this is not a film for everybody. Something happens at the end of Magnolia that will be talked about and pondered over for years to come, dividing critics and public alike into those who see no relevance ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Jason Wallis

The Nation (Stuart Klawans)

The writer-director, Paul Thomas Anderson, throws that in, too--and yet the mood at the end is comic. You can place Magnolia by the startled laughter that erupts at the climax, during events that are (paradoxically) both cleansing and slimy. There's ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The Nation (Stuart Klawans)

3 Black Chicks ("Bams")

Magnolia sets its story up at the start by telling three Tall Tales - otherwise known as "Urban Legends" (c.f. the "Urban Legends" website and "alt.folkore.urban" Usenet newsgroup) - as if they were real ("strange things happen all the time", the ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at 3 Black Chicks ("Bams")

Jerry Saravia

"Magnolia" begins with an ingenious prologue about chances and coincidences in life, told through some famous urban legends. One includes an attempted suicide that becomes a homicide, a store clerk killed by three thieves who bear his name, and the ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Jerry Saravia

Reviews on the Side (Steven Lekowicz)

You'd think that during this Oscar season I'd make sure I got out and saw more movies. You'd think the overwhelming desire to make sure I've seen as much as possible would get me away from the computer and out to the theaters, waving my expired student I. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Reviews on the Side (Steven Lekowicz)

PopMatters (Todd R. Ramlow)

As Academy Award nomination season rolls around, I hope that Paul Thomas Anderson's absolutely brilliant Magnolia receives the accolades that it so richly deserves. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at PopMatters (Todd R. Ramlow)

Indiewire

Out with the old, in with the new. In Robert Guediguian's giant leap forward, the foremost chronicler of Marseilles working-class life enters a new arena altogether, with yet another valentine to his native port city in the south of France. Only this ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Indiewire

Haro Online

Paul Thomas Anderson is known for his unconventional style of filmmaking. In Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, Anderson thrust previously taboo topics into the mainstream. Hailed by many as one of a new generation of filmmakers, Anderson definitely has a ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Haro Online

sneersnipe (Tristan Lambert)

The follow-up to his better-known Boogie Nights, P. T. Anderson's Magnolia is nothing short of stunning in every respect. Essentially a Pulp Fiction-style collection of interrelated stories, it is nevertheless the complete antitheses of the Tarantino ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at sneersnipe (Tristan Lambert)

Movie Gazette (Gary Panton)

I'm not saying this is a long film, but you could watch 'Weekend At Bernie's' TWICE in an equivalent amount of time. Nuff said. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Movie Gazette (Gary Panton)

SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review

Paul Thomas Anderson had a big hit with 1997's Boogie Nights, a film that trenchantly dug into 70s nostalgia via an exhumation of the porn industry. It was a critical hit, although one's own opinion fell slightly less of such acclaim - Anderson's ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review

Audio Revolution

The swirling stories of the awesomely ambitious "Magnolia" again invited comparisons to the movies of Robert Altman, unlike Altman, Anderson views all his characters as fellow voyagers in life, all looking for love and/or acceptance, few finding it. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Audio Revolution

Salon (Stephanie Zacharek)

Junior genius Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" may be imperfect and uneven, but this intimate epic is far too good to be considered just a noble ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Salon (Stephanie Zacharek)

Film Freak Central

Two sprawling dramas find themselves on DVD this month, one of which references the other and hopes, maybe, to beat it at its own game. With so many films these days unduly stamped "Altmanesque," the home video restoration of the director's seminal 1975 ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Film Freak Central

Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice

Since its theatrical release last December, a few of the film's detractors have tried to convince me of the perceived error of my ways, but my admiration for Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia remains stronger than ever. Even after a number of repeat ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice

Movieline Magazine

Notorious as the underseen, hyper-extended something-or-other for which Tom Cruise got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, Magnolia is a veritable orgy of a movie--love it or hate it, it's impossible to ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Movieline Magazine

James Sanford

It is not, however, a picture the average moviegoer is likely to eat up. "Magnolia" shares with Anderson's previous film "Boogie Nights" a fascination with detail and nuance, with taking scenes to their limits and then daring to stretch them a little ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at James Sanford

DVD Review e-zine

Do you believe in coincidences? If not, "Magnolia" may be able to convert you otherwise. Take this for example, a series of coincidences that open the movie and set the mood for the rest of the picture. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at DVD Review e-zine

The (Georgetown) Hoya

Frogs fall from the sky. Before you continue (OR stop) reading, know that in P.T. Anderson's new film, Magnolia, frogs fall from the sky. Don't feel spoiled or cheated out of your movie experience; knowing it happens won't prepare you for it, as nothing ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The (Georgetown) Hoya

Shannon Patrick Sullivan

"Magnolia" is the brainchild of Paul Thomas Anderson, and is a sequel of sorts to his "Boogie Nights", featuring many of the same cast and crew. Some critics have reviewed "Magnolia" on this basis, but I have not seen "Boogie Nights" (yet) and would ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Shannon Patrick Sullivan

Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)

Magnolia makes it three-for-three for writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)

Scott Renshaw's Screening Room (Scott Renshaw)

Delivers thrilling scene after thrilling scene. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Scott Renshaw's Screening Room (Scott Renshaw)

Apollo Guide (Mike DeWolfe)

Writer/director P.T. Anderson plays the stories off one another to great effect. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Apollo Guide (Mike DeWolfe)

New York Times (Janet Maslin)

What Anderson lacks in substance is offset by his great skill with actors, his gift for shaping resonant little individual vignettes and his extraordinary intuition. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at New York Times (Janet Maslin)

Deconstructing Edward (Ted Prigge)

Indeed, the biggest problem is not that no one story is completely brilliant. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Deconstructing Edward (Ted Prigge)

Movies 101 (Robert Glatzer)

It's in the nature of young filmmakers, if they have enough talent and chutzpah, to boldly go where (they think) no one else has gone before. Paul Thomas Anderson certainly has the chops, and in writing and directing "Magnolia" he's hung it all out, ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Movies 101 (Robert Glatzer)

Globe and Mail (Liam Lacey)

You don't have to like everything [Anderson] does, but if you enjoy seeing the walls rattled and the roof raised in the Hollywood citadel, you've got to love it. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Globe and Mail (Liam Lacey)

James Brundage

In the spring of 1999, a whale beached itself on the shores of sunny California. The whale was dead as a doornail... there was nothing anyone could do about that. The question became this: what do we do with its body. The State Troopers were in charge ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at James Brundage

Steve Rhodes

Although the movie has a cast of thousands, the stories are really individual ones. To underscore this, the film's killer score starts with a long and loud rendition of "One Is The Loneliest Number."In a fascinating performance likely to get an Oscar ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Steve Rhodes

Susan Granger

As a followup to the porn movie scene of Boogie Nights, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson examines the emotional effects of physical and spiritual cancer in this manic, rambling tale of dying fathers and their pathetic children in the rootless '90s. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Susan Granger

David N. Butterworth

In a story of intersecting lives and emotions, Robards is bed ridden and dying of cancer, Moore is his emotional wreck of a trophy wife who's finally learned to love him, and Hoffman is his sensitive and beleaguered nurse. Cruise, in a dynamic ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at David N. Butterworth

Harvey S. Karten

In Paul Thomas Anderson's vision, we are like puppets on strings, manipulated by Divine Will, flukes, happenstance, societal norms, and driven at times to nearinsanity by the afflictions of our own past. Anderson's previous film, "Boogie Nights," ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Harvey S. Karten

Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

"Magnolia" is drunk and disorderly on the pure joy of making movies. A frantic, flawed, fascinating film that is both impressive and a bit out of control, often at the same time, "Magnolia" may occasionally overshoot its mark, but it's the kind of ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)

The Cranky Critic (Chuck Schwartz)

A couple of months ago, Cranky got an email from someone working on the set of writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. He warned me that this flick was a disaster of momentous proportions but the very wording of his message made it sound like he ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The Cranky Critic (Chuck Schwartz)

DVDBeaver

Over the course of the film, some of the characters are redeemed...others are not. Included among the doubles and doppelgangers that populate this film (two wives, two children, two child geniuses, two saviors, and at least one angel), we're presented ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at DVDBeaver

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) (Judith Egerton)

Anderson's movie has the audacity to expose the ugliness within a society that worships power and cherishes materialism. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) (Judith Egerton)

Mark R. Leeper

As studies of characters these stories are each worth following. As wellrounded stories with a beginning, middle and end, they leave something to be desired. But the film is willing to do the unexpected and that helps make the film worth sitting through. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Mark R. Leeper

Greg King

The action of this sprawling pseudoepic takes place over the course of one inclement day in Los Angeles and follows nine principal characters, whose lives are inexorably linked.Dying millionaire Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) wants to affect a final ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Greg King

Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Brian Oliver)

Magnolia is the new masterpiece by Paul Thomas Anderson, the man behind critically acclaimed Boogie Nights. I never have seen Nights, but have heard it is quite good. After seeing this, I know Anderson does have a talent, but is not quite fully ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Brian Oliver)

Houston Chronicle

His credits include writer/director of Boogie Nights and Hard Eight. Anderson's reputation is such that Tom Cruise called the director, who's not yet 30, and asked to work with him on the film. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Houston Chronicle

Sean P. Molloy

When I become a significant enough celebrity to be interviewed (not too long now...), inevitably I will be asked how I wound up where I am. And when that happens, I'll sit back in my flowerencircled chair... contemplate the ceiling for a moment... and ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Sean P. Molloy

Light Views, Reviews & Previews (John Larsen)

Grey skies are going to clear up, but not before writer-director P.T. Anderson drags his characters through heaven and hell in "Magnolia." One half biblical epic, one half human opera, "Magnolia" emerges as one of the best films of 1999. "Magnolia" ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Light Views, Reviews & Previews (John Larsen)

Walter Frith

'Magnolia' also makes the mistake of trying to bombard the screen with too much over the top material that it loses track of its entertainment value. The film is like being grabbed by an octopus and pulled in so many directions that you're exhausted ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Walter Frith

Kamera.co.uk

Magnolia is way too much to take in at once. A second viewing isn't just preferable, it's essential, and the film has been made with this in mind. Saying that, it clocks in at over three hours, so Paul Anderson is asking a hell of a lot from his ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Kamera.co.uk

Scott Hunt

Magnolia left me relling from the theatre, staggering from the relentless assault of an adventurous director reveling in his craft. At nearly three and a half hours, Magnolia will strike some as a brute of a film. It not only demands your attention, but ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Scott Hunt

Hollywood.com (Jim Bartoo)

Magnolia is as challenging and evolutionary a film as one could hope for. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Hollywood.com (Jim Bartoo)

Mark O'Hara

In "Magnolia," Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted just such a film, one that left me puzzled and pleased. A social epic Anderson could have borrowed Trollope's old title, "The Way We Live Now" the film chronicles the lives of several people, tying ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Mark O'Hara

Mac VerStandig

Despite opening with footage of old black and white 16 millimeter film, Magnolia quickly splices away from many timerevered filmmaking fundamentals and bravely ventures into cuttingedge territory. In that sense, the film is a true first effort and, like ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Mac VerStandig

Stephen Graham Jones

And now, after allowing us a few moments to swallow this, to agree with him that strange forces are at work/play behind the curtains, the 'movie' starts, and, coincidentally enough, it's all just jumbled stuff going on, about as directionless as can be. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Stephen Graham Jones

hip online

CAST: Tom Cruise STUDIO: New Line RATING: 4.5/10 Magnolia Magnolia is the perfect example of why it is that reviews don't mean a thing. I heard everyone raving about this movie like it was the second coming of Christ, but I saw it and thought it ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at hip online

The New Zealand Herald

If it was just down to totalling up bravura moments, Magnolia would be a clear frontrunner for film of the year. Anderson's ambitious follow-up to his similarly populous Boogie Nights sure doesn't lack for jaw-dropping scenes.These include the ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The New Zealand Herald

Plume Noire

n Magnolia, an Altmanesqe ensemble piece, director Paul Thomas Anderson returns to his favorite location for wacked out needy people: the San Fernando Valley. Though he proves that over-ambition and arrogance do not always make the perfect movie, there ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Plume Noire

Mediasearch, Australia

Grey skies are going to clear up, but not before writer-director P.T. Anderson drags his characters through heaven and hell in "Magnolia." One half biblical epic, one half human opera, "Magnolia" emerges as one of the best films of 1999. "Magnolia" ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Mediasearch, Australia

The Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)

Wow, what a year! What started like a typical weekend of unexceptional Hollywood fluff has been shaken up. There have been some pretty weird films this year, ranging from Election to Being John Malkovich, but Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia takes the ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)

Reel.com

Magnolia features many more scenes of inspired humor and unflinching realism. Sadly, these brilliant moments are too often lost in the film's narrative jumble. Had Anderson been able to snip some of his beloved footage, he could've made this near-miss ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Reel.com

PopMatters (Cynthia Fuchs)

Riding in his cruiser, LAPD Officer Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) explains what his days are like. While he laments "so much violence," he also understands it as "the way of the world," and that it makes it "our job, to serve and protect." Jim sees ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at PopMatters (Cynthia Fuchs)

MediaCircus (Anthony Leong)

Grey skies are going to clear up, but not before writer-director P.T. Anderson drags his characters through heaven and hell in "Magnolia." One half biblical epic, one half human opera, "Magnolia" emerges as one of the best films of 1999. "Magnolia" ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at MediaCircus (Anthony Leong)

Deseret News, Salt Lake City

What that means is that once viewers have put the pieces of this mosaic together, they may not have everything that is revealed. Or in some cases, they may not be able to piece it together at all. However, there are handsome rewards for those ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Deseret News, Salt Lake City

City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

To the degree that its lengthy tale of a well-endowed young comer seemed to suggest autobiography, Boogie Nights foretold the fickle function of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's own cinematic tumidity. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul

Reel.com

The Magnolia packaging itself is a lovely trifold, but for a film as rich and meaningful as this, the content seems underdeveloped. Even the basics are lean. English is the only language offered, either spoken or subtitled, and the chapter stops are ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Reel.com

Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)

In a time when people grieve for their lack of feelings and are strangers to their own souls, we need more tales about ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)

Fotograma.com

Vuelve uno de los directores preferido de FOTOGRAMA.com, Paul Thomas Anderson, el de "Boggie Nights", con esta prolija, acabada y atrapante historia de una familia, que durante poco mas de tres horas ocuparÃ¡ la pantalla dejando a los espectadores vivir ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Fotograma.com

Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)

Earl Partidge lies in his living room dying of cancer while his emotionally involved home care nurse Phil tries to track down his estranged son Frank Mackey, a 'self help' guru spouting misogynistic pick up strategies, while also appeasing Earl's ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)

Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)

Paul Thomas Anderson's success with "Boogie Nights" apparently encouraged his ego to run rampant with "Magnolia," a bloated, pretentious three-hour indulgence. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)

A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)

Many originally found director Paul Thomas Anderson's work fascinating years ago in "Hard Eight", a film that starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. The film's release was somewhat badly done to put it lightly, and the film hardly saw much ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)

CineScene.com (Kristen Ashley)

I like slice of life films. I like weird films. I like films with curse words. I don't mind violence or gore. I like films with meaning. I like films that you don't like when you leave the theater but you like more and more as time goes on and you get a ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at CineScene.com (Kristen Ashley)

Metaphilm

Everyone wants to talk about the frogs. Everyone loves to point out those little references to the numbers 8 and 2. I'm one of those people, and in fairness, these are some of the more interesting features of Magnolia. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Metaphilm

Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents

In California's San Fernando Valley, any given day is likely to produce the unlikeliest of occurrences and coincidences. This is one of those days. While motivational guru Frank Mackey (TOM CRUISE) stirs up his all-male audience about how to nab women, ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents

Reverse Shot

If the Nineties were watershed years in American filmmaking, it was also a decade of intense absorption for the American filmgoer. In this age of innocence, good taste too often trumped good intentions; hipsters like Kevin Smith could be celebrated for ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Reverse Shot

As the Reel Rolls (Malcolm Clark)

..operatic in its ambition, a great, joyous leap into melodrama and coincidence... ...The film's opening sequence...tells stories of incredible coincidences. Great! But what did the coincidences have to do with the price of chopped ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at As the Reel Rolls (Malcolm Clark)

Christian Spotlight on the Movies

Magnolia is a different kind of a movie. It's true that it's not for everyone. In fact, I would say that a better half of the population (not just Christians) would hate this movie. As for me, I fell in love with this flower called ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Christian Spotlight on the Movies

filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)

Paul Thomas Anderson has pulled off an impressive accomplishment. He has directed and written two consecutive films that have been widely hailed as outstanding, and he only just turned thirty. The achievement would have even been more impressive, ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)

San Francisco Examiner (Wesley Morris)

Magnolia" establishes the San Fernando Valley as a Rube Goldberg-like matrix of hysterical urban legend. The tale of a scuba diver in a tree is entwined with the urban legend of a son accidentally murdered while trying to commit suicide - and that's just ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at San Francisco Examiner (Wesley Morris)

The Tech (MIT) (Vladimir Zelevinsky)

There are indulgent films, and there are over-indulgent films, and then there is Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson's (Boogie Nights) sprawling movie devoted to one day in the life of several unhappy residents of San Fernando Valley. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The Tech (MIT) (Vladimir Zelevinsky)

Apollo Guide (James Lap)

Magnolia is about coincidence. You have old men dying of cancer (one imminent, one not far behind), and their children who hate them for their crimes in parenting. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Apollo Guide (James Lap)

The Phantom Tollbooth

My common refrain during this holiday movie season has been, "That was too long." While it's certainly more common for the big Oscar films to stretch over two hours, I can't remember a time when so many movies have approached or even crossed the ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The Phantom Tollbooth

Deep Focus (Bryant Frazer)

The strategy is clearly meant to disarm us, like flashing a bright light in our faces before an interrogation. Once stunned, we're drawn slowly into Anderson's cat's-cradle storyline, where various desperate souls seek reconciliation in the blue ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Deep Focus (Bryant Frazer)

Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)

"We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us" is the recurring theme of this new movie by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Hard Eight). ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)

Jam! Movies

With Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson made an auspicious and promising debut. Magnolia, his latest effort, is pretentious, loud, vulgar and, at 200 minutes, inexcusably self-indulgent. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Jam! Movies

DVD Authority.com (Matt Brighton)

Paul Thomas Anderson's (usually billed as P.T. Anderson) latest film is really so much more than that, it's more of a statement on life in general. Life, living and the people we know and meet are usually thought to be determined by chance, but this ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at DVD Authority.com (Matt Brighton)

San Francisco Chronicle (Bob Graham)

Any director who shuffles the stories of nine major characters over the course of three solid hours, as Paul Thomas Anderson does here, had better come up with a flabbergasting climax. In "Magnolia," damned if he doesn't. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at San Francisco Chronicle (Bob Graham)

Sunday Online, Australia (Peter Thompson)

We're all very familiar with the technique of parallel action; cutting between two stories occurring simultaneously. You know the sort of thing: meanwhile, back at the ranch, etc. But Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia is more like channel ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Sunday Online, Australia (Peter Thompson)

New York Magazine (Peter Rainer)

I wish I could join in the chorus of praise for Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, because I think he's extravagantly gifted. But this San Fernando Valley-based epic of alienation features often remarkable actors (Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Jason ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at New York Magazine (Peter Rainer)

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Based on his first two films, "Hard Eight" and "Boogie Nights," it's obvious twentysomething director Paul Thomas Anderson is that one out of a thousand young American Indie directors who is "the real thing" and on the threshold of a big ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Film Monthly (Doug White)

Wow, what a year! What started like a typical weekend of unexceptional Hollywood fluff has been shaken up. There have been some pretty weird films this year, ranging from Election to Being John Malkovich, but Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia takes the ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Film Monthly (Doug White)

The New York Times - Family Movie Guide (Peter M. Nichols)

There are a lot of private lives in the San Fernando Valley, and Mr. Anderson, director of ''Boogie Nights,'' gets into at least half of them in a mosaic of a film that takes three hours to put the pieces together, and then none too neatly. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at The New York Times - Family Movie Guide (Peter M. Nichols)

DVD Talk (Chris Hughes)

To my way of thinking Magnolia is the kind of film that Hollywood should have been making all along. It's deep, moving and thought provoking while retaining a good deal of surface entertainment value. Magnolia is wordy and long so it won't be to ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at DVD Talk (Chris Hughes)

filethirteen.com

Of course, I didn't really have to be dragged. Anderson's "Boogie Nights" was hands down the best film of 1997. I will watch anything the man cares to unleash on the general public. And even knowing that "Magnolia" had a 3 hour and 8 minute run time, I ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at filethirteen.com

kids-in-mind

A seemingly disparate group of people living in the San Fernando Valley -- including a game show host, a misogynistic motivational speaker, a terminally ill man, a boy genius, a police officer and an estranged daughter -- find that their lives intersect ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at kids-in-mind

Well Rounded Entertainment (Peter G. Helfrich)

Magnolia is a jigsaw puzzle of a film that, unfortunately, once its final image takes shape, is far less compelling than the pieces from which it was fashioned. ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Well Rounded Entertainment (Peter G. Helfrich)

LeisureSuit.net

To the list of disappointing three-hour movies released this month, now add Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to his critically acclaimed Boogie Nights from 2 years ago. Rarely has so much talent in front of and behind the camera produced a film ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at LeisureSuit.net

Movie Hell (Michael J. Legeros)

MAGNOLIA presents a four-pack of believe-it-or-not tales, about a hanging, a forest fire, a suicide attempt, and a rainstorm. The first three are covered in the film's first fifteen minutes; the fourth takes close to three hours to unfold and involves a ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Movie Hell (Michael J. Legeros)

Criminy Pete's Knee Jerk Spoilers

I have no idea what to make of this film. Is it three hours of neurotic self-absorbed LA people yelling and screaming at each other, with loud music gimmicks to create tension? Three hours of narcissistic horseshit about Writer/Director Paul Thomas ...read the complete Magnolia movie review at Criminy Pete's Knee Jerk Spoilers

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