skeetsmiller

Along with Wes Anderson's Rushmore, and P.T. Anderson's other masterpice, Boogie Nights, Magnolia is one of the best three films of the 90's. Magnolia is a series of interlocking stories: The characters include Stanley Spector( an amazing performance by young Jeremy Blackman), a current quiz kid champion who wants to be loved by his father; Frank T.J. Mackey( Tom Cruise), a sexist motivational speaker who gives speeches on how to "seduce and destroy" women, former quiz kid Donnie Smith( William H. Macy), now a middle-aged homosexual who is only kept going because of his love for a bartender, a religious cop, Jim Kurring( John C. Reilly) who wants to help people, Claudia Wilson Gator( Melora Walters), a troubled drug addict who is asked out on a date by Jim, who has no idea of her problem; Jimmy Gator( Philip Baker Hall), a dying game show host who is Claudia's father; Earl Partridge ( Jason Robards), a TV producer who is also dying of cancer; Linda Partridge( Julianne Moore), Earl's pill-popping wife; and Phil Parma ( Philip Seymour Hoffman)a kind nurse who goes beyond his career, and actually feels his patients pain, but who really has no life beyond his job, and has a problem communicating with the outside world. Magnolia happens all in one random day, and the characters lives play out with Aimee Mann music in the background( the characters sining "Wise Up" is truly a brilliant cinematic moment). Although Magnolia may be a little too long( 3 hours, 8 minutes), for some viewers, Magnolia takes you on an experience like few other movies do.

I originally rented Bottle Rocket because it was from the same director and writers( Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson) of my favorite movie Rushmore. I'm glad I rented it. It turned out to my one of my favorite movies. Bottle Rocket starts as Anthony Adams( Luke Wilson) is being released from an asylum for "exhaustion". Anthony meets up with his friends Dignan, an enthusiastic wannabe criminal( played by co-writer Owen Wilson), and rich, but depressed Bob Mapplethorpe( Robert Musgrave). Their first big robbery is at a bookstore, which is very funny because Dignan politely robs the store( "Uh, do you have any bigger bags for atlasas and dictionaries, uh, sir?"). This leads to the three hiding out at a hotel where Anthony falls in love with a maid( Lumi Cavazos), who can't speak English. I'm not going to give away any more of the plot, because I feel I gave away too much already. Now I'm going to say why Bottle Rocket is a great film: It's original, funny( especially in the scenes involving Kumar Pallana as a senile safecracker), and with great performances by Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and another Wilson brother, Andrew, as Bob's bullying big brother. James Caan also gives a very good small performance. Bottle Rocket also have some great music in it, including a score by Mark Mothersbaugh, and the movie songs include two of my favorites: The Rolling Stone's 2000 Man and The Proclaimer's Over and Done With. Definitely a must-see movie!

I do have to admit that the only reason I rented Race the Sun was because Sara Tanaka( Margaret Yang from "Rushmore")was in it. Rushmore is one of my favorite movies, but I especially think that Sara Tanaka was good in it. Well anyway, back to the review, I heard quite a lot of negative things about the movies, but I decided to check it out anyway. I was quite surprised. The story about a group of poor students from Hawaii competing in a solar-car race in Australia was well-acted, interesting, and fun. I was kind of disappointed that Sara Tanaka wasn't given enough screentime, but it was still quite an entertaining movie, and Sara Tanaka gave another good performance.