Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
New Line Cinema
Not part of a collection.
Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
CinemaSerf
Jul 12, 2026 · via TMDB
This isn't so much a piece of cinema as a cinematographic exercise is crochet-work! There are nine folks central to it's plots - for there are at least three - yet as we progress we realise that there is a degree of integration between the characters that becomes less tangential as the stories unravel. "Jimmy" (Philip Baker Hall) has hosted a quiz series for thirty-odd years that showcases the precocious wisdom of the children of America. It's current champion is the astonishingly bright "Stanley" (Jeremy Blackman) but as their team achievements edge ever close to record-breaking territory, he becomes uncharacteristically nervous! Meantime, grown-up daughter "Claudia" (Melora Walters) has a penchant for the white powder and lives in a grubby apartment living a life that is only going to lead her in one direction. The there's "Frank" (Tom Cruise) who is the epitome of evangelising motivational speakers determined to make a decent living empowerng the male sex to take back control of their own sexual identity. He, of course, offers us an abject lesson in doing as I say not as I do. Another alumni of the quiz is "Donnie" (William H. Macy) whose own life wasn't exactly helped by being struck by lightning and so he is now largely only focused on getting some braces for his teeth and then, finally, there is the attentive police officer "Kurring" (John C. Reilly) who is struggling to deal with an unexpectedly quiet occupant of a woman's closet! Is "Jimmy" the only conduit for these interwoven characters here, or might the cancer suffering and bedridden "Partridge" (Jason Robards) have a part to play? Even as he lies on death's door consuming his oxygen from a cylinder contemplating his own life, not least his unfulfilled marriage to the gold-digging "Linda" (Julianne Moore). If that doesn't give you a clue as to the initial messiness of this, and as to why it needs to be just over the three hours long, then I don't know what will - but once we have established the premiss of interconnectivies of these folks, this is a surprisingly easy film to follow that is loaded with characterful performances and quirkiness as it makes evaluations of family, fame and loneliness. What is real? Who is real? Indeed, when might even be real? The timelines are often darting about from the youth of some to the old age of others then back again in fashion that can seem haphazard but that does actually knit together, after a fashion, as we end what could be the whole film or really just a few of it's constituent chapters. Now there is a great deal of padding here, and you have to be prepared for periods of time where the story inches at barely a glacial pace in whatever direction the auteur has selected for this phase of this drama, but with strong efforts from Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman (the nurse), the understated Macy and from an out of his comfort zone Cruise, this is a film that benefits from a few viewings to appreciate it's nuanced and darkly comedic elements as well as it's more physocologically complex ones.
badelf
Feb 12, 2026 · via TMDB
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson I'm not sure if this entire film was built around Aimee Mann's "Wise Up," or if Magnolia is really a love letter to Aimee Mann herself. What's clear is that Paul Thomas Anderson wrote his sprawling, three-hour epic with her music as the foundation. Nine original songs from Mann comprise the soundtrack, her dark, sardonic style meshing perfectly with Anderson's vision of damaged people struggling through one terrible day in the San Fernando Valley. In the soundtrack liner notes, Anderson writes that all the stories branched off from one character inspired by Mann's music, adding, "You can look at the movie as the perfect memento to remember the songs that Aimee has made" (Tastemakers Music Magazine). Either way, the soundtrack is beautiful, essential, inseparable from what makes the film work. Watching all these characters descend into their own private hell for the first two acts is amazing. This is PTA's master class in casting. Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards, William H. Macy, Melora Walters — every one of them was cast perfectly. Moore's breakdown is magnetic, like watching a train wreck in slow motion; you can't look away even as you know it's going to end badly. Hoffman brought tears to my eyes with his tender performance as a nurse caring for a dying man, finding grace in the most ungraceful circumstances. Robards delivers a master class in not giving away the script until it says to do that, holding back emotion until the dam breaks. And then there's Tom Cruise, so perfect in his role as a toxic masculinity guru that it even makes him look like he can act. That alone should tell you how good Anderson is. "Wise Up" functions as the transition to the denouement, and it's brilliant, integral to the story. The film stops, or rather shifts gears entirely, as one by one each character begins singing along to Mann's song. It's structurally audacious, emotionally devastating, and it shouldn't work but absolutely does. That moment transforms Magnolia from a collection of intersecting stories into something unified, a recognition that all these broken people share the same fundamental truth: it's not going to stop until you wise up. This is Anderson at his most ambitious, most vulnerable, most willing to take enormous risks. Magnolia is messy, sprawling, occasionally excessive, but it earns every minute of its runtime through sheer emotional honesty and technical mastery. It's a film about forgiveness, regret, connection, and the possibility of grace in a graceless world, all underscored by Mann's songs that make the unspoken spoken, the unbearable bearable. This audio-visual art is a masterpiece.
Dharunn
Apr 19, 2023 · via TMDB
Julianne Moore at her's Peak & and also all of em. **What the Frogs!**
GenerationofSwine
Jan 11, 2023 · via TMDB
I remember seeing this in the theater with one of my friends, during our first year in college. We had all found our way back to town and... given we lived in the sticks... we ended up going to the movies out of habit and for lack of anything else to do. And I'll be honest, at the time, I walked out of the theater kind of blown away. I hadn't really seen a movie like that before. I mean, the closest thing that came to it was American Beauty, and we had only seen that a few months prior... and that had more of a plot. At the time, I'll admit, I thought it was pretty good.... and then I returned to it and now, honestly, I just think it's pretentious. Pretentious really is the best way to describe it. When you first see it, it hits you one way because it's an odd movie that you really haven't seen before. And then, when go back to it, knowing a little more about it, you realize that the plot, the characters, the entire premise of the film is about as thin and transparent as a white chiffon shirt in a wet t-shirt contest. The presentation was there, but that's really all it was. Presentation and vapidness. It's show and tell with no real tell and the hopes that frogs might get the audience thinking enough to distract them away from the fact that there's no substance beyond the presentation.
JPV852
Jul 16, 2022 · via TMDB
Been a long time since I last watched this but even though this was 3 hours long, never felt the length and I was pretty much captivated throughout (although I did pause a few times to get refill on my drink or grab a snack). The performances all around were great, most notably Tom Cruise, Melora Walters, John C. Reilly and the young Jeremy Blackman (Stanley). It does get heavy-handed and while I "get" the raining frogs scene, that took me out a bit (albeit it was towards the end). **4.0/5** As a side, the other two kids (Julia and Richard) were hacks, counting on Stanley to carry them. Something that irked me the first time I saw this, lol.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
HBO Max Amazon Channel
Cinemax Amazon Channel
HBO Max
Cinemax Apple TV channel
Amazon Video
Apple TV Store
Google Play Movies
YouTube
Fandango At Home
Tom Cruise
Frank T.J. Mackey
Philip Baker Hall
Jimmy Gator
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Phil Parma
Julianne Moore
Linda Partridge
William H. Macy
Quiz Kid Donnie Smith
John C. Reilly
Officer Jim Kurring
Melora Walters
Claudia Wilson Gator
Jeremy Blackman
Stanley Spector
Jason Robards
Earl Partridge
Melinda Dillon
Rose Gator
Michael Bowen
Rick Spector
April Grace
Gwenovier
Ricky Jay
Burt Ramsey / Narrator
Pat Healy
Sir Edmund William Godfrey / Young Pharmacy Kid
Neil Flynn
Stanley Berry
Rod McLachlan
Daniel Hill
Allan Graf
Firefighter
Patton Oswalt
Delmer Darion
Brad Hunt
Craig Hansen
Jim Meskimen
Forensic Scientist
Chris O'Hara
Sydney Barringer
Clement Blake
Arthur Barringer
Jim Ortlieb
Middle-Aged Guy
Thomas Jane
Young Jimmy Gator
Veronica Hart
Dentist Nurse #1
James Kiriyama-Lem
Dr. Lee
Jake Cross
Pedestrian #1
John Pritchett
Police Captain
Cleo King
Marcie
Don McManus
Dr. Landon
Michael Shamus Wiles
Captain Muffy
Jason Andrews
Doc
John S. Davies
Cameraman
Kevin Breznahan
Geoff, Seminar Guy
Miguel Pérez
Avi Solomon
Alfred Molina
Solomon Solomon
Neil Pepe
Officer #1
Lionel Mark Smith
Detective
Annette Helde
Coroner Woman
Felicity Huffman
Cynthia
Scott Burkett
WDKK Page #1
Danny Wells
Dick Jennings
Eileen Ryan
Mary
Meagen Fay
Dr. Diane
Luis Guzmán
Luis
Orlando Jones
Worm
Henry Gibson
Thurston Howell
Natalie Elizabeth Marston
Julia
Clark Gregg
WDKK Floor Director
Matt Gerald
Officer #2
Paul F. Tompkins
Chad (Seduce & Destroy) (voice)
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Janet (Frank's Assistant) (voice)
Jim Beaver
Smiling Peanut Patron #1
Ezra Buzzington
Smiling Peanut Patron #2
Michael Murphy
Alan Kligman, Esq.
Robert Downey Sr.
WDKK Show Director
William Mapother
WDKK Show Director's Assistant
Mike Massa
Paramedic #2
Dale Gibson
Paramedic #3
Scott Alan Smith
E.R. Doctor
Paul Thomas Anderson
Man Confiscating Sign (uncredited)
Miriam Margolyes
Faye Barringer (uncredited)
Robert Bella
Detective #2 (uncredited)
Greg Bronson
Waiter (uncredited)
Phil Hawn
Bob (uncredited)
Spencer Kayden
Seminar Patron (uncredited)
Aimee Mann
Hot Date Infomercial (uncredited)
Tom Ohmer
Detective (uncredited)
Shepherd Frankel
Assistant Art Director
Mark Bridges
Production Design
Chris L. Spellman
Set Decoration
Robert Elswit
Director of Photography
Cynthia Pusheck
Underwater Camera
Mark Bridges
Costume Design
Lois Burwell
Makeup Artist
Christopher Allen Nelson
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Joel Harlow
Special Effects Makeup Artist
Fiona Apple
Additional Music
Alan D. Purwin
Aerial Coordinator
Dana Kristen Vahle
Pilot
James Moran
Set Production Assistant
Allan Graf
Stunts
Bob Yerkes
Stunts
Debbie Evans
Stunts
Hugh Aodh O'Brien
Stunts
Michael Adams
Stunts
Mike Massa
Stunts
Ousaun Elam
Stunts
Phil Culotta
Stunts
Richard Burden
Stunts
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director
Dylan Tichenor
Editor
James Plannette
Chief Lighting Technician
Barbara Harris
ADR Voice Casting
Dylan Tichenor
Associate Producer
Cassandra Kulukundis
Casting
Daniel Lupi
Co-Producer
Lynn Harris
Executive Producer
Michael De Luca
Executive Producer
JoAnne Sellar
Producer
Paul Thomas Anderson
Producer
Daniel Lupi
Unit Production Manager
Doc Kane
ADR Mixer
Tom Boyd
Musician
Jon Brion
Original Music Composer
Dennis Sands
Scoring Mixer
Aimee Mann
Songs
Richard King
Sound Designer
John Pritchett
Sound Mixer
Michael Semanick
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Richard King
Supervising Sound Editor
Colin Brady
Animation
Erik A. Candiani
Visual Effects
Joe Letteri
Visual Effects Supervisor
Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer
Decision
Ghorme Sabzi
Take The Bridge
My Daughter Joy
Deja Vu
I'm an actrice
Troll
History of Love
Luc ou la part des choses
Twin Peaks
I Wanna Die
Forrest Gump
Once Upon a Time in America
It's a Wonderful Life
The Lion King
Gladiator
The Prestige
The Apartment
The Seventh Seal
The Kid
The World of Apu
8½
Paris, Texas
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
La Dolce Vita
Nobody Knows
American Beauty
The Best of Youth
Aurinko in Adagio
Like Stars on Earth
Million Dollar Baby
Braveheart
Freedom Writers
La Strada
A Bronx Tale
In the Name of the Father
Persepolis
Downfall
Fargo
Dances with Wolves
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Donnie Darko
Rain Man
Big Fish
Platoon
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Mystic River
Batman Begins
The Bridges of Madison County
Notorious
The Celebration
October Sky
Apocalypto
Amores Perros
White Heat
Atonement
Three Colors: Blue
The Last Samurai
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Elevator to the Gallows
Gigantic
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Manon of the Spring
The Executioner
Harold and Maude
The Game
Talk to Her
A Few Good Men
Blood Diamond
First Blood
Walk the Line
Hero
Breathless
The Music Room
The Great Silence
Miracles from Heaven
Touch the Sun: Princess Kate
Custody
Carol
Ray
The Royal Tenenbaums
Taipei Story
Live and Become
The Big Blue
Distant Lights
Once Were Warriors
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
August Rush
Berlin am Meer
Duma
Hobson's Choice
The Trap
Lost in Translation
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Waves
Dirty Dancing
21 Grams
Dead Man Walking
Pickpocket
Good Morning, Vietnam
Lolita
We Shall Overcome
This Man Must Die
A Very Long Engagement
Brothers
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Little Women
Leaving Las Vegas
The Edge of Heaven
Short Cuts
Reign Over Me
The Patriot
The Catered Affair
Don't Worry, I'm Fine
Breakfast on Pluto
Crash
Secret Sunshine
Still Life
Nashville
Three Seasons
The Wedding Banquet
Mädchen in Uniform
Places in the Heart
Fresh
The Bucket List
Our Mother's House
Babel
Real Steel
Snow Cake
Field of Dreams
Eyes of an Angel
Saltwater
As It Is in Heaven
Love Actually
The Cuckoo
Rocky IV
Little Children
The Virgin Suicides
Grave Decisions
Stomp the Yard
Two Brothers
Lorenzo's Oil
Music Box
A Tale of Two Sisters
Two Men in Town
Dear Frankie
The Child
Last Life in the Universe
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Slender Thread
Garden State
Traffic
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Troubled Water
Juno
The Lovely Bones
American Graffiti
If Only
Nowhere in Africa
City of Men
The White Sound
My Own Private Idaho
No End
Love on the Run
Ronia: The Robber's Daughter
Chocolat
Whale Rider
In My Father's Den
Indochine
Matchstick Men
Die Anruferin
Der blinde Fleck
In the Line of Fire
The Secret Life of Happy People
A Guy Could Change
In the Jam Jar
Comedy Queen
Sanako
Mayflower
The Secret Life of Words
The Host
Sunday in August
Frailty
Broken Flowers
Death at a Funeral
Shotgun Stories
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams
Rocky III
Beyond Silence
The Queen
Samaritan Girl
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Benny's Video
Earth
Gods and Monsters
Dark Horse
The Shell Seekers
Tokyo!
Salvador (Puig Antich)
Closer
Not Without My Daughter
The State I Am In
Lights in the Dusk
Tuya's Marriage
The Flower of My Secret
In the Valley of Elah
Netto
The Craft
The Good Son
Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie
Magnificent Obsession
Interiors
Lane 1974
Zana
Monster's Ball
Anna and the King
A Real Pain
Policewoman
Jack & Sarah
He Got Game
Madea's Big Happy Family
Dark Blue Almost Black
About a Boy
Not Here to Be Loved
Sex and Lucía
Bonjour Tristesse
Hallam Foe
Van Gogh
The Tree of Life
Lantana
Miss Potter
Bravetown
My Father
We Own the Night
Purple Rain
The Song of Names
A Rumor of Angels
Absolute Power
Parenthood
Last Night
Playing by Heart
2 or 3 Things I Know About Him
The History Boys
Things We Lost in the Fire
Requiem
Max Dugan Returns
Bringing Out the Dead
If the Father and the Son
Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler
The Brave One
Omagh
Dan in Real Life
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
The Discovery of Heaven
Alias
The Life of the Dead
Reservation Road
Clean, Shaven
Emma's Bliss
Golden Door
Mutants
Private Parts
Red Road
Bambi II
Florida
Roller Coaster
The Chumscrubber
Little Voice
Learning to Lie
Hum Tum
The Red Squirrel
Rendition
Involuntary
The Party 2
Shaft
Swept from the Sea
Changing Hearts
Dusk
Jump In!
Inside Moves
Biker Boyz
Hearth Fires
The Good Heart
Curly Sue
The Last Mimzy
The Abandoned
Cassandra's Dream
Twilight
Last Chance Harvey
Las Horas Contigo
A Moonless Night
Moonlight Shadow
Mercury Rising
Shot Pattern
The Air I Breathe
Shortbus
Popular Music
Fat Girl
The Coast Guard
Land of Plenty
Jersey Girl
Double Impact
Elizabethtown
Towelhead
First Daughter
Puerto Padre
Gemma Bovery
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
The Rules of Attraction
The Elementary Particles
My Life Without Me
Hollywoodland
In Good Company
Beste Zeit
Sounds of Sand
Raising Helen
Nathalie Granger
Lonesome Jim
Spanglish
The Man by the Shore
Keane
The Girl in the Park
Shoppen
The Goddess
Under Capricorn
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Little Indian, Big City
Orange County
The Babysitters
Troubling Love
Take Me Home Tonight
Under Milk Wood
The Glass House
Georgia Rule
Solaris
The Libertine
Poseidon
Earth and Ashes
Sahara
Down in the Valley
The Eye
Prague
Adrift
Mili
1922
A Morning of Farewell
Hello Ghost
Wasted
Beloved
Party Monster
The Last Mistress
Der Tote am Strand
Running with Scissors
The Punisher
The Skulls
Rocky V
Bollywood/Hollywood
Audrey Rose
Brute
Odette Toulemonde
Summer '04
SommerHundeSöhne
When the Lights Went Out
The Other Lamb
The Nameless
I'll Do Anything
Wednesdays Don't Exist
Light of Day
Open Water 2: Adrift
Suburban Girl
Somebody Is Waiting
The Doldrums or How to Cure Sadness
The Monster
Coconut Sweet
Flux Gourmet
The Island of Thirty Coffins
Berlin is in Germany
Liberty Stands Still
Memories of Me
The Beach House
Eleven Men Out
Dead of Summer
Might
A Real Young Girl
Inherit the Viper
The Next Best Thing
Outlaw Force
Blue
Cloned
Lovely Man
Restless Souls
Ardor
36 Fillette
Snowland
My Magic
The Pornographer
Shattered Illusions
Heartbreak Hotel
November
Welcome Home, Bobby
Melissa P.
10 Sekunden
The Night Buffalo
Erlkönig
Blueprint
Little Friends
Magic Men
You
Une glace avec deux boules...
Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
Fifteen
Life Lens
Mitte 30
The Moth
Love Child
Panoh
I Turn to You
Like Trees
rio
Deathmate
Hide the Bullets from the Gun
Joutel
Here to Mars
My Name Is Max
After All This Time
Daughters & Sons
Brief aan mijn vader
Christmas Eve
For Good (It isn’t)
American Beauty
Beautiful Boy
The Game
The Secret Life of Bees
Rebel Without a Cause
The Florida Project
The Unforgivable
'night, Mother
The Short History of the Long Road
Forever Strong
Bastard Out of Carolina
Don't Make Me Go
Tuesday
Not Without Hope
Suburbia
El Chicano
A Thousand and One
The Skeleton Twins
Goodbye June
The Safety of Objects
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Tideland
Reservation Road
The Thing with Feathers
Echo Valley
Joe Bell
The Starling Girl
The Etruscan Smile
Palm Trees and Power Lines
Inheritance
End of Sentence
Cowboys
The Other Woman
Holy Lands
Palo Alto
The Glass House
Lorelei
The Truth About Emanuel
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Hot Milk
Hellion
God's Pocket
Rose Plays Julie
Strange Weather
Dec 8, 1999
Westwood, California
Dec 17, 1999
Jan 7, 2000
Jul 25, 2000
VHS
Aug 29, 2000
New Line Platinum Series DVD
Jan 19, 2010
Blu-ray
© 2025-2026 MovieNight. All rights reserved.
Versus
Sign in to play →
Hold
2021
Greta Van Fleet: Live at Red Rocks
2019
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
Versus
Sign in to play →
Hold
2021
Greta Van Fleet: Live at Red Rocks
2019
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
We use essential cookies to run MovieNight, plus analytics (Google Analytics) and advertising (Google AdSense) cookies. By continuing to browse, you agree to this — or click No and we won't. See our Terms & Privacy Policy to learn more.