If There Will Be Blood has eclipsed Magnolia as PTA’s most highly praised movie, this deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. TWBB is a vertical, linear story, trained on larger than life oilman Daniel Plainview. Magnolia, by contrast, unfurls like a flower, in every direction. It’s the story of a dying TV producer (Jason Robards), his male nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman), his much younger, second wife (Julianne Moore), his estranged son, a sex guru (Tom Cruise in his greatest single performance), and also of two child game show quiz kids, past and present (PTA worked on a similar show as a teenager), a TV host (Philip Baker Hall), his estranged daughter (Melora Walters), her new boyfriend (John C Reilly)…
In sum, there are enough characters here to furnish a soap opera for several seasons, crisscrossing the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation. Anderson keeps us invested in each of these strands, using the songs of Aimee Mann as a unifying thread. He takes big swings here, it’s his riskiest film, but if you are willing to go with it the pay-off is huge.
Enthralling and exhilarating.
Time Out
Magnolia is a plea for kindness — especially between parents and children. It appeals to the emotional heart rather than the logical brain, but there’s true greatness here — it’s a rare movie, about which one can feel true passion.
Andrew O’Hehir, Daily Telegraph
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.
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Media Partner
Paul Thomas Anderson
Philip Baker Hall, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H Macy, Julianne Moore, Melora Walters
USA
1999
English
Book Tickets
Thursday August 27
Monday August 31
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Executive Producer
Michael De Luca, Lynn Harris
Producer
Paul Thomas Anderson, JoAnne Sellar
Screenwriter
Paul Thomas Anderson
Cinematography
Robert Elswit
Editor
Dylan Tichenor
Original Music
Jon Brion
Production Design
William Arnold, Mark Bridges
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
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Three Kings
George Clooney headlines David O Russell's bold, brazen attempt to get to grips with the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, as 4 US soldiers try to liberate a missing shipment of gold amidst the chaos and carnage.
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they crisscross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
Election
Tracy Flick (Reece Witherspoon) is running for Student President, but Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas... This remarkably sour millennial comedy from Alexander Payne (The Holdovers; Sideways; The Descendents) hits twice as hard today.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is an assassin, but he's also an existential loner who adheres to his personal code. Despite the thriller trappings, this is really a lampoon of that genre, and a melancholy reverie for the cultural melting pot we call home.
The Straight Story
David Lynch goes a different direction in this linear Midwestern about a septuagenarian (Richard Farnsworth) who drives nearly 400km on a lawnmower to visit his ailing brother (Harry Dean Stanton).
90s Surprise Film
The 90s movie we have all been missing... Join us for a celebratory wake for this year's 90s, Baby series! What you will be seeing is top secret (no, not Top Secret!, that was 1984) but it will be at least 26 years old and it will be new to this series.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Kiarostami's dry comic masterpiece follows a Tehrani film team's thwarted attempts to document a traditional Kurdish funeral... Trouble being, there's no one to bury, and, worse, virtually no cell service...
Fight Club
1999 was a very good year for movies, but nothing captured millennial angst quite so vividly as David Fincher's bruising black comedy about what it means to be a man today. This modern classic does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction.