Magnolia (1999)

Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling, intense and multi-layered study of a collection of characters going through varying levels of crisis.

This psychological drama leads you in several different directions, weaving and intersecting various subplots and characters, from a brilliant Tom Cruise (who was nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe), as a self-proclaimed pied-piper, to a child forced to go on a TV game show and the pressures he faces from a ruthless father.

Paul Thomas Anderson's highly ambitious third feature is indebted to Robert Altman in its multifaceted approach to storytelling, but would in turn inspire a new wave of multilinear films – sometimes referred to as ‘hyperlink cinema’ – at the beginning of the 2000s.

1999 USA
Directed by
Paul Thomas Anderson
Produced by
Joanne Sellar
Written by
Paul Thomas Anderson
Featuring
Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Melinda Dillon
Running time
188 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Magnolia

Critics

Margit Adorf
Estonia
Charles Bramesco
USA
Philip Brophy
Australia
Sonia Genaitay
UK
Andrea Glawogger
Austria
Kevin Harley
UK
Stefan Ivančić
Serbia
Ella Kemp
UK
Johannes Lõhmus
Estonia
Sarah Lutton
UK
Nashen Moodley
Australia
Chris Neilan
UK
Leslie Pitt
UK
Richard Propes
USA
James Rodrigues
UK
David Thomson
UK/USA

Directors

Matty Crawford
UK
Grant Gee
UK
Marie Kreutzer
Austria
Richard Kwietniowski
UK
Daniel Scheinert
USA
Chris Shepherd
United Kingdom
Florian Zeller
France

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