Why do some folk hate Magnolia so passionately?

Started by Marty McSuperfly, April 17, 2003, 05:59:15 AM

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BrainSushi

I'm not reading through all these posts, so I don't know if this has been touched on this thread. What really pisses me off are people who refuse to even WATCH the movie for the stupidest reason.

I remember raving to a girl about how great the movie is, and the next day she comes up to me: "Theren was a movie on TV last night with frogs falling from the sky... what was that?"

"Magnolia."

Now, because frogs just absolutely, positively gross her out, she refuses to ever watch the entire movie. She told people (to whom I'd raved about the movie to), who now also refuse to see it because frogs just gross them out.

SoNowThen

Kinda like how I can't get people to take Boogie Nights seriously because porn grosses them out.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Slick Shoes

A friend of mine won't watch Hard Eight because he doesn't like Nevada.

bonanzataz

remember when greg had that story about the woman who had a nervous breakdown when watching magnolia b/c she had a deadly fear of frogs?
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

Pedro

Quote from: SoNowThenKinda like how I can't get people to take Boogie Nights seriously because porn grosses them out.
the porn in boogie nights helped get a few friends to watch it with me.  by the end of it, one of the three dug the "art" aspect of the film, instead of just the graphic content...now he's a ptaphile like all of us

1 out of 3 ain't bad

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

man, that picture on Cigarettes & Coffee looks like PTA and Emily Watson are so gonna DO it. And it's been up there a long time. And they still haven't done it yet.
Well, that's alright.

My Dad's coworker didn't like it because it "has some guy who wants his father to die."
Yeah, some people didn't even wait 4 minutes for the "don't go away you fucking asshole" line. Plus, it would have fit in approrpriately for what they were doing right then. HA!!!
Close-minded Losers.

Mia Wallace

Some hate it because of its resemblance to Altmans work (particularly Short Cuts)

Some hate it because its shamelessly manipulative

Some hate it because its pretentious

Some hate it because the acting is so laughably over the top

Some hate it because they lack a long attention span

Some hate it because of the way PTA constantly rips off Scorseses style

and others hate it because it rains frogs.

I however do not.
I have to go powder my nose

Alethia

good, then you will get along just fine here!   :)

welcome, by the way.

modage

Quote from: Mia Wallaceanything
a girl!  just act natural.  we have plenty of these.   yep *(whistles nonchalantly.)
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: Mia Wallaceanything
a girl!  just act natural.  we have plenty of these.   yep *(whistles nonchalantly.)

We're all just gonna act like little Fonzies. And what's Fonzie like?
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

modage

Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pozer


Jeremy Blackman

I'm amazed how quickly Magnolia hate still gets my blood boiling. Just stumbled across this on The AV Club.

Bolded the key part for emphasis...


From: What artist can't you get into, despite knowing that they're great?

By Mike Vago

In 2007, cineastes everywhere were in a heated debate over which great American filmmaker(s) had delivered the bigger masterpiece: No Country For Old Men, or There Will Be Blood? For me, the choice was easy. I'll go see anything the Coen brothers do as long as they're making movies, but for the life of me, I can't stand Paul Thomas Anderson. I did like Boogie Nights, but not as much as the critical consensus. It was a collection of scenes—some of them fantastic, mind you—but it never quite held together as a whole. And then there's Magnolia. He opens the film with a meditation on stunning coincidences, to prime us for a film without a single coincidence. There's no one to root for, as Anderson seems to hate all of his characters. Every single woman in the film is shrill and hysterical in every scene, as if he decided coked-up Julianne Moore from Boogie Nights was how all women act all the time. And the plague of frogs was just plain stupid. I did intend to give the director another chance, but then he cast Adam Sandler in his next movie, and he lost me for good.

polkablues

I can even accept that there are legitimate criticisms against the film, but those are not them.
My house, my rules, my coffee