In search of Magnolia
A movie blog. Searching for the thrill I first experienced when I saw Magnolia by P.T. Anderson. I'll try to review every movie I see, good or bad, and top that with some other movie related stuff.
The Usual Suspects
This blog could’ve be named “In search of the usuals suspects” just as easily ..
Although The Usual Suspects is a few years older (1995), I think I saw Magnolia first. It must have been in the same period anyway. When talking about being surprised by a movie, TUS is for sure on my A-list. I remember seeing it for the first time some 10 years ago, and at the end of the film, when the story comes together, I rewinded the denouement about a dozen times.
The movie wasn’t bad at all so far, but when that part showed, I remember waking up to full extend, and being so excited. It was rather late, but it must have taken at least a few hours before I was willing to go to bed. Blown away! The ending made a good movie top class.
I saw the movie again somewhere last week, still thrilling!
It’s also the movie that has put Kevin Spacey (on twitter) on the map. He carried the movie, being rather unknown at that moment. And it did pay off, since he played some big productions shortly after, like Se7ven and L.A. Confidential.
I can only assume the Usual Suspects wasn’t a big production at the time. Rather unknown cast and directed by Bryan Singer, quite big today but only starting at the time. Singer was 30 years old when the movie released, about my age. If only I had a movie like this on my track record ;)
Good stories triumph, that’s what we can learn here. The funny thing about really great stories, is they’re hardly ever the big Hollywood productions. Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy these productions just as easily (more on that later), but it’s peculiar non of them are in my toppers list.
Anyway, if you haven’t seen the suspects yet, drop everything you’re doing, buy the movie (don’t rent it, you’ll need it again) and go watch it right away.
