Magnolia is not a great movie

I agree. It is vastly overrated, a 5/10 from me.

anderson himself has said a few critical things about it over the years, i believe. it has some passionate advocates, certainly. i'm relatively lukewarm on it, at least by the standards of his films, all of which i like.

it's way too long, no question, but it's loaded with great moments. i appreciate it as a moon shot, a guy letting his talent run all over the place.

I loved it, it's awesome, filled with great performances depicting interesting characters, and you might want to put a spoiler-alert in your post/title before lobbing the ending into a message board thread.

I really enjoyed the movie. Indeed it was full of flawed characters, and terrible people, but most of them were trying their hardest to work through their flaws, or learn how to live their lives despite their flaws. I thought that it was very reminiscent of real life in that regard. I know that I certainly haven't always done what I should have in my life. I know that I regret a lot of things that I did, and how I treated other people sometimes. There were times that I should have been more empathic to the problems of others around me, and sadly I wasn't. So, I could really relate to the movie.

And what happened at the end of the movie DOES indeed happen in real life.

I agree that it is indeed long. But not boring. Just slow, and meandering at times.
I genuinely enjoy this film, but it has a certain vibe that only works if the viewer is in a particularly lethargic mood. I don’t rewatch it often, but if I’m in the proper mood it never disappoints. Darkly comic, emotionally straining, and hypnotic. A great dead-of-night film.
A bit indulgent, sure, but satisfying all the same, in my humble opinion.

found this in another thread: "pretentious and hollow, 100% gradschoolish in a bad way."
perfect description.

Best drama film ever in my view. Great acting by everyone involved in it. But I can see some legit reasons why some people don't like it. I just wish the film would have been named "Frogs". lol, that would have been the perfect title.

Although, Amadeus might be a little better. That was a great one too. My two favorite dramas for sure.

A massive Paul Thomas Anderson fan and he's one of the greatest living directors today, It's Anderson most flawed film even though I think it's still a great film but it would be down in the bottom of the list for his films. It's definitely not up there with his great work like There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love and The Master for me.

But I still love Magnolia, I do agree with Anderson that he could have edited it down to maybe 2hr 30minute film and it would have been a far stronger film (honestly feel Anderson would probably make a far stronger film today with this script imo). But there's a lot of great stuff in this, Tom Cruise, Jason Robards and Philip Seymour Hoffman parts of the film are probably the strongest parts of the film. All the cast are excellent but some sections don't work as strong as others and I feel maybe if Anderson worked a bit more on others or cut others out it probably would have made a stronger film. Aimee Mann's music is also another great part of the film.

I think it's slight step down from Boogie Nights and Anderson came back with a even better film in Punch Drunk Love following this. And it's not my favourite of his films but it's still a very good film.