My favorite movie is Magnolia. I first saw it in 2006, but I didn't make it my favorite movie until a couple of months ago. I've always loved it though - it's always been at least top 10.
In 2006 I was 13 and getting into movies, having discovered IMDb's top 250 list. My parents had borrowed a DVD of Magnolia from a friend and after looking it up I persuaded them to let me watch it. That didn't last long. My mom had a low tolerance for Tom Cruise's use of 'cunt' and 'cock,' but I was entranced with the cinematic vision of the audacious prologue and emotionally-charged opening montage. I eventually watched the whole thing on my own later that year and it lived up to the 20 minutes I saw.
I've had a set of #1s since 2006 - Fight Club, Se7en, La Haine, The Assassination of Jesse James, Synecdoche New York, Dog Day Afternoon - and Magnolia was always a runner-up, a film that everytime I watched it and came out bawling that I wish I could make it my #1, if only there wasn't a film in the way. Jesse James was my #1 for about 6 years and in those years I went to film school which shaped the storytelling techniques and thematic ideas that resonated with me the most. A theater rewatch earlier this year of Jesse James proved that the rugged masterpiece no longer held up to my new standards.
I cycled through some past contenders to see what my new #1 would be and only Magnolia really stood up to the full-throttle magical experience I had when I was a young teenager. Time and rewatches make that 3 hours more condensed yet blunted none of its power. There are some movies where familiarity really feeds into sinking into its world and Magnolia always feels fresh with its unbridled creativity. It's thoroughly cathartic, deeply human and empathetic, rough but glossy, and just makes me whole afterwards. That's all I ask of a favourite movie.
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Submitted September 18, 2017 at 12:06PM by IncidentOn57thStreet http://ift.tt/2wC2WqT
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