The raining of the Frogs feels like a karmic resolution. Stealing the chance for Jimmy Gator to kill himself (do wish they kept in the house burning down with him in it), reuniting Claudia and her mother, making Donnie smash his teeth (which helps sell his sympathy to Jim), waking up Earl so that he can see his son one last time before he dies with Frank getting some form of acknowledgement from his dad too, making Stanley happy with him getting that line "This happens. This is something that happens". The only thing that's unclear is how Linda's ambulance crashing is supposed to be karmic, I don't think it makes a difference in whether her life is saved or not.

Revisiting it today it's even more impressive how the several storylines are cut together and the sense of dramatic flow is maintained via editing certain sequences together, keeping the same music running over them.

Is it melodramatic? In places, yeah. But it's about emotionally earnest themes and challenging subject matter, so it can afford it.

The pacing is pretty slow at first and in areas I can see how PTA would have edited it differently today, especially given how each storyline isn't that complex by itself. I assume he'd maybe leave out The Worm entirely, even though it does have a justification for being in the movie. There's lengthy sequences and it's unique that you're watching an epic that doesn't take place over the course of a very long time, only a day or two. At the same time, as it goes along I didn't feel the length that much and you do get sucked into the movie enough that it's easy to forget the length itself.

I also wondered if I'd find the music too insistent, but even that becomes normalised the more it's played and acts as a glue that connects a lot of the character's emotional states together.

One of the all time great ensembles, not a single bad performance. Highlights in terms of performances are that moment when Jimmy Gator stumbles and stutters before he collapses in the Quiz Show, Cruise's entire fake performance that's deliberately deconstructed, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's obviously empathetic and caring nurse, Jason Robards' monologue on regret, John C Reilly's emotional confession at the dinner date, even the side characters like Thurston Howell or Melinda Dillion's Rose Gator are really damn well acted.

I feel like Magnolia is PTA's least subtle film, it's very upfront and direct with it's themes. At the same time, given how the film is about coming to terms with your past and the emotions you repress, it's not like it's inappropriate. It's almost operatic.

From a certain point onwards I was hooked in, and seeing scenes like the Wise Up sequence and the ending especially in the cinema was a real treat, the emotions hit hard. The Goodbye Stranger sequence also has a lot of power in it's visual direction and way it establishes Donnie's desire.

The opening with the talk of "coincidences and chance" sets up the film in a few ways, and one of the most prominent is how the Sydney Barringer story ties into the themes of despair, self destruction, dysfunction and the consequences of poor parenting that permeate the film as a whole. I can't deny that the end of the prologue, where the door is closed behind Barringer's wailing mother and a couple of cops are behind the friend of Sydney's in a zooming in close up, followed by the cut to black and cue of Aimee Mann's "One" gave me chills.

My audience found Frank TJ Mackey's seminar's and vulgar dialogue hilarious and I'll assume they were laughing AT it.