magnolia

...talking about emotion....

I am still in the nostalgic aftermath that brought me back in time, pretty much exactly 8 years ago, with the help of a bottle of very fine red wine, humming Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" and "One" alternately. These were actually my high school years, or at least that one summer that I definitely think of as my high school years, to get past the embarrassment and humiliation that usually goes well along with the remembrance of high school as such. And it took me back to a homework assignment that I had to do for a film class, where I did something on Magnolia, by Paul Thomas Anderson, which was my favourite movie for years, around that time.

And I YouTubed it. And I got goosebumps. It passed the test of time. It is still a perfect movie.

It is not only that I love the narratorial introduction, which frames the movie in a realm of possibilities, or the following exposé (for lack of better words) with Aimee Mann's "One" on the soundtrack setting the tone and mood for the movie while the camera is in a constant move to introduce all the main characters that the film will be circling around, examining every and each one of them in short bursts of congenial revelation, or that I LOVE Julianne Moore in this flick and think she really ought to have gotten the Oscar for her performances ever since (I just checked, she wasn't even nominated, but in general this movie lost all its categories to VERY inferior movies, and it wasn't even nominated in all the right categories, though, which were: Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Tom Cruise, which he should have definitely won, because this is his most believable performance that I've ever seen, he is so brilliant! (granted, it is also the least attributable "acting" I've ever seen, because he simply (and genially) plays himself but with such a natural grace that it blows your mind; an award that rather went to Michael Caine for "The Cider House Rules", a movie I always didn't want to see) and Best Music, Original Song for Aimee Mann's "Save Me", which is right here

and lost to Phil Collins's "You'll Be in My Heart" from the "Tarzan" soundtrack (for all American Psycho Fans: This is Collins at his best!) and also it didn't get the award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, which went to American Beauty (I can't be angry about this one, although Anderson should have won, because American Beauty's Screenplay Award for Alan Ball kicked off the (insert incompatible and most superior adjective) Six Feet Under HBO series). The other Oscars Magnolia should have gotten in 2000 were: Best Picture (American Beauty), Best Director (Sam Mendes, American Beauty), Best Cinematography (American Beauty) and Best Editing (Matrix), that makes 6 Academy Awards total that this very fine and perfect movie was denied. I lost track of all the parentheses here, but think this should be ok.
No, it is also that I first took notice of later Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman and the incredible Willam H. Macy and John C. Reilly and a very fine Luiz Guzmán who plays himself.

Again. This movie is perfect. It needs no exclamation mark. It is its own exclamation mark. And I would really enjoy watching it again. After so many years it's like meeting a long-ago lover you are still in love with. And here is my offer: The first person contacting me (via phone, email or direct verbal exchange) about wanting to watch it with me gets free snacks and beverages of choice (also it will reassure me that I don't write this blog into a mindless cybernetic vacuum) for the whole 188minutes that it lasts, assuming you pay full attention throughout this one dedicated time span (to the movie) or otherwise I'll heimlich you out of my fucking apartment until all of that snacks and beverages that were not thoroughly digested by the time I suspect you of not having payed too much attention to the movie are projectile-vomited out the window, which I will have checked to be open at the designated time, the time you didn't pay enough attention.
Here is the German Trailer. Sorry for all you international guys, but this is actually the best v/a quality I could find on Youtube and it is brilliantly dubbed in German. For all of those considering watching Magnolia with me: I have no problem at all watching it in German, because, as I said, it is perfectly dubbed. First Come, First Serve. Crank Up Your Volume! The screening will be on BluRay. Watch out for all the 8s and 2s.