It's been a while since Paul Thomas Anderson has made a film, and a fresh look at "Magnolia" gives you a good clue why.
Despite a million dollar cast including Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reily, Tom Cruise, Phillip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luiz Guzman and Jason Robards (this was his last feature. It's debatable if this film killed him) the film is dull, pretentious and insufferable. However, it does contain one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes in all of motion pictures: the scene where it starts raining frogs in the San Fernando Valley.
Paul Thomas Anderson went on to make the equally overrated but somewhat better "Punch Drunk Love" before seeming to disappear from the silver screen for awhile. I guess he just hasn't found any financing for "Magnolia II: the Frogs Strike Back".
Despite a million dollar cast including Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reily, Tom Cruise, Phillip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luiz Guzman and Jason Robards (this was his last feature. It's debatable if this film killed him) the film is dull, pretentious and insufferable. However, it does contain one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes in all of motion pictures: the scene where it starts raining frogs in the San Fernando Valley.
Paul Thomas Anderson went on to make the equally overrated but somewhat better "Punch Drunk Love" before seeming to disappear from the silver screen for awhile. I guess he just hasn't found any financing for "Magnolia II: the Frogs Strike Back".