Nominees: American Beauty, Iron Giant, The Limey, All About My Mother, The Straight Story, The Sixth Sense, Postmen in the Mountains, Rosetta, Being John Malkovich, The Talented Mr. Ripley
Oscars pick: American Beauty
Nominees: The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense
Such an audacious undertaking, only a young gun feeling his oats would dare something like this - but while it's excessive (in later years a more seasoned PTA would declare that he should have cut 20 minutes from the film) that swagger and excess are what makes Magnolia, Magnolia (call it Anderson's "White Album").
Its wiki page summarizes the film as "an epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley" - I'd add that this 'search' often springs from the scars parents leave on their children, the aftereffects of that, on both. There are also so many moving pieces, where any single act sets off a chain reaction of people or persons hurling towards one another. Even those who are defined by their loneliness, are linked in some way, by varying degrees (illustrated so powerfully in the sing-along sequence - another seeming coincidence, that really isn't, everything and everyone is connected).
That music, by Aimee Mann, inspired the stories, and delivers such mournful feeling to scenes. She adds so much to the tone of the picture. (I awarded "Save Me" the Best Original Song - these are listed in the "Awards Rundown" posted on the right).
In addition, the acting is all around stunning - over the top at times (Julianne Moore was particularly irksome with the chewing of scenery) but it was also a convincing reflection of a soul's fragility, or kind-heartedness, or their anger or resignation, or any myriad of emotional state a particular person finds themselves in. They made you feel it.
The picture concludes just as it should, outrageous to the end, with the biblical raining of frogs, but also compassionately, with acts of kindness and forgiveness, and a first, hopeful smile on the face of someone who perhaps felt they'd lost the capacity for such a thing.
Magnolia's divided viewers since its release, some feel it amounts to a lot of stuff and nonsense, others find it perceptive and moving, but that it challenges one to think and debate, is the mark of something special to my mind.
Honorable Mentions: Jim Carrey, Man on the Moon * Russell Crowe and Al Pacino, The Insider * Forest Whitaker, Ghost Dog * Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis, The Sixth Sense * Kevin Spacey, American Beauty * Lopsang, Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl * Sean Penn, Sweet and Lowdown * Terence Stamp, The Limey * Jim Broadbent, Topsy Turvy * Bob Hoskins, Felicia's Journey
Honorable Mentions:
Li Xiaolu, Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl * Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry * Annette Bening, American Beauty * Edie Falco and Madeline Kahn, Judy Berlin * Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds * Émilie Dequenne, Rosetta * Roth, Cruze, Paredes, Pena, and San Juan, All About My Mother * Elaine Cassidy, Felicia's Journey
Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, The Insider
Special Award - Best Ensemble: Magnolia - Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, Tom Cruise, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, Jeremy Blackman, April Grace, William H. Macy, Melinda Dillon, Ricky Jay, etc
Special Award - Best Ensemble: Magnolia - Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, Tom Cruise, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, Jeremy Blackman, April Grace, William H. Macy, Melinda Dillon, Ricky Jay, etc
