Magnolia1999

I’m not the best at analyzing and understanding subtext so i knew that this movie was going to be somewhat difficult for me to wrap my head around. There are a lot of moving parts that flow beautifully together but what it all means, I can’t say. I was surprised that for a movie like this with this long of a runtime, I didn’t feel it at all. That could be do to the lens I was watching the movie through given the opening. I expected some sort of big crazy climax that brought everything together in a grotesquely coincidental way, like a final destination-esque car accident. While every character has some ties to each other that literal connection matters less than the thematic connection tying everyone together.  What is that connection? Forgiveness, Grief, Fear of the past?  Let’s look at cruises character. Through fear of accepting the past (the abandonment of his father and the death of his mother) and truly moving on, he became the very thing he hated. A worse, more misogynistic, more manipulative version of his own father. Only by confronting the past and confronting his father he is able to forgive him and move on.  Cruise is a phenomenal actor among other phenomenal actors and play the role so well. I appreciate what the movie is trying to do in bringing together all these different pieces but I do wish it focused more on either cruises storyline or the game show storyline as the twos connection is so thin I think either would be stronger on their own.  All in all I enjoyed this movie. It is incredibly shot and beautifully edited, with an amazing score and soundtrack. This is a movie and I think it is a must watch for anyone who says they love movies.