One of those films that are supposed to “make people think”. But they take all of the things they thought before with them into the theatre. So what they might possibly think afterwards is still going to be all over the map. We will always be stumbling into each other’s narratives with narratives all our own.
It really didn’t change my mind about much. It merely reinforced what I already suspected about this fucked up world we live in today: that money doesn’t talk, it screams. And that love really isn’t all we need.
In the end it didn’t ring true for me. Instead, it sounded like what it is: scripted.
Just a note…
from imdb:
“Over 7,900 rubber frogs were made and used in the frog scenes. The rest were created by CGI. No real frogs were harmed during production.”
MAGNOLIA
Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
[b]Frank: I am the one who’s in charge. I am the one who says yes! No! Now! Here! Because it’s universal, man. It is evolutional. It is anthropological. It is biological. It is animal. We! Are! Men!
…
Stanley: I’ve got to go to the bathroom
Jimmy’s assistant: Can you hold it?
…
Jim [looking down at a dead body in the closet]: What the hell is this, Marcie?
Marcie: That ain’t mine!!
…
Claudia: Now that I’ve met you, would you object to never seeing me again?
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Frank: In this big game that we play, life, it’s not what you hope for, it’s not what you deserve, it’s what you take.
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Thurston: It’s dangerous to confuse children with angels.
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Claudia: I’ll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through the piss and shit and lies that kill other people.
…
Thurston: Brad, dear, who was it that said, “A man of genius has seldom been ruined but by himself”?..It was the lovely Samuel Johnson…Who also spoke of a fellow “who was not only dull but a cause of dullness in others.”
Donnie: “The cause of dullness in others.”
Thurston: Picky, picky!
Donnie: Let me tell you this. Samuel Johnson never had his life shit on and his money stolen! Who took his life and his money? His parents? His mommy and daddy?
Bar patron: Your parents took your money you won on that game show?
Donnie:Yes, they did!
…
Gwenovier: Actually, I’m confused about your past.
Frank: Is that still lingering? It’s so boring.
Gwenovier: Just want to clear some things up.
Frank: It’s a funny thing…This is an important element of “Seduce and Destroy”. Facing the past is an important way of not making progress. This is something I tell my men over and over and over.
…
Young Pharmacist: Strong, strong stuff here. What exactly you have wrong, you need all this stuff?
Linda: Motherfucker…
Young Pharmacist: What are you talking about?
Linda: Who the fuck are you, who the fuck do you think you are? I come in here, you don’t know me, you don’t know who I am, what my life is, you have the balls, the indecency to ask me a question about my life?
Old Pharmacist: Please, lady, why don’t you calm down - ?
Linda: Fuck you, too. Don’t call me “lady”. I come in here, I give these things to you, you check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions. I’m sick. I have sickness all around me and you fucking ask me about my life? “What’s wrong?” Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where’s your fucking decency? And then I’m asked fucking questions. What’s… wrong? You suck my dick. That’s what’s wrong. And you, you fucking call me “lady”? Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on both of you!
…
Jim: Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail.
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Stanley: Dad? You need to be nicer to me.
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Linda: I have to tell you something. I have something to tell you. I want to change his will. Can I change his will? I need to.
Alan: No, you can’t change his will. Only Earl can.
Linda: No, you see, I never loved him. I never loved him. Earl. When I met him, I fucked him, and I married him because I wanted his money. You understand? I’m telling you this. I’ve never told anyone, I didn’t love him but now, I know I’m in that will. We made that fucking thing, and all the money I’ll get. I don’t want it, because I love him so much now. I’ve fallen in love with him now for real as he’s dying. I look at him, and he’s about to go, Alan. He’s moments away from dying. I took care of him through this. What now, then?..I don’t want him to die. I didn’t love him when we met and I did so many bad things to him that he doesn’t know. Things that I want to confess to him. But now I do. I love him.
Alan: Linda, what kind of medication are you on?
Linda: This isn’t any fucking medication talking! Can you give me nothing? You have power of attorney. Can you go in the final moments and change the will? I don’t want any money. I couldn’t live with myself with this thing that I’ve done.
…
Frank: It hurts, doesn’t it? You in a lot of pain? She was in a lot of pain. Right to the end, she was in a lot of pain. I know because I was there. You didn’t like illness, though, did you? I was there. She waited for your call. For you to come. I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry for you! You cocksucker, I know you can hear me. I want you to know that I hate your fucking guts. You can just fucking die, you fuck. And I hope it hurts. I fucking hope it hurts.
…
Narrator: And there is the account of the hanging of three men, and a scuba diver, and a suicide. There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, “Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it.” Someone’s so-and-so met someone else’s so-and-so and so on. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that strange things happen all the time. And so it goes, and so it goes. And the book says, “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”[/b]