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Magnolia | 1999 | R | - 7.6.10

A seemingly disparate group of people living in the San Fernando Valley -- including a game show host, a misogynistic motivational speaker, a terminally ill man, a boy genius, a police officer and an estranged daughter -- find that their lives intersect during the course of a day. With Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Melora Walters, Jeremy Blackman, Michael Bowen, Melinda Dillon, April Grace, Luis Guzmán, Ricky Jay, Orlando Jones, Alfred Molina and Michael Murphy. [3:05]

SEX/NUDITY 7 - Lots of sexual innuendo (including several references to fellatio) and a few kisses. In an extended scene, a man teaches a misogynistic course to men on how to manipulate women into having sex with them (this includes several graphic sexual references). We briefly see a man thrusting on top of a bare-breasted woman and a man thrusting into a scantily clad woman from behind (he's not wearing pants but his shirt covers his buttocks). A man thrusts his hips as if having intercourse. We briefly see a close-up of a woman's bare breasts and panties on a TV program; also, we see a blurry shot of a woman's bare breasts through a glass shower door. We see a man in his underwear.

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man puts a gun to his face, then we see blood splatter on the wall behind him as he pulls the trigger; also, a man holds a gun to his cheek and then something crashes through the ceiling and hits his hand, causing the gun to fire (we see blood spray on his collar as he falls to the floor). In a scene shown a few times, a boy jumps off the top of a building and is shot in the chest on his way down (some blood is visible). Twice, we see an old film clip of a few people being hanged. A man lunges across a table, tackles a man and punches him repeatedly. A woman throws pillows and screams at a man, a woman slaps a man's face and screams at him, a man grabs and shakes a boy, a man overturns a table, a man threatens to kick some dogs, a police officer handcuffs a woman to a couch, a man throws a chair against a wall and a man suddenly leans toward a woman menacingly and she pushes him away. Thousands of frogs fall from the sky, bombarding a few cars (blood and brown ooze is visible on the cars), crashing through a skylight and knocking down a man climbing up the side of a building (he hits the ground face-first and gets a very bloody mouth and several bloody facial cuts). A man drives into a storefront's window, a woman crashes her car into a wall and an ambulance flips on its side (no one appears to be injured). A couple instances of threatening with guns; in one scene a man is shot at and slips down a hill. Throughout the movie we see a dying, emaciated man lying in bed, sometimes moaning and obviously in pain. We see a few corpses (one is discovered in a closet and another is seen on top of a tree); also, we see a body bag being carried out of a house. A woman sits in running car with the garage door down for a little while before getting out (it appears that she's trying to commit suicide) and a woman takes many pills and loses consciousness (she appears to be dead, but is later taken to a hospital and revived). A man collapses to the floor and is later revived. We see a man with some bloody streaks on his face. A boy urinates in his pants; also, a man vomits and then lays his head on a toilet rim.

LANGUAGE 10 - At least 175 F-words, lots of anatomical references and slang terms, lots of scatological references, lots of mild obscenities, some insults and a racial epithet.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Dysfunctional families, terminal illness, misogyny, quiz shows, drug use, murder, incest, infidelity, abandonment, coincidence, suicide, making amends.

MESSAGE - Everyone makes mistakes; some are easier to fix and forgive than others.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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