Magnolia

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. 1999, 188 mins. U.S. 35mm. With John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Philiip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Phillip Baker Hall, Melora Walters, Jason Robards, Jeremy Blackman. Cruise gives one of his greatest performances in Paul Thomas Anderson’s mesmerizing, rocket-fueled epic of interlocking lives in Southern California. This fleet, galvanizing portrayal of people on the edge is a work of precocious virtuosity, and each discrete element of the film’s traffic pile-up of a narrative is as fascinating as the last. As Frank TJ Mackey, a revoltingly misogynist motivational speaker with unresolved dad issues, Cruise received an Oscar nomination, and his energetic, deceptively externalized work remains a marvel. The rest of the cast is magnificent, from Hoffman’s lovely performance as a hospice nurse attending to Cruise’s estranged father (Robards), to Walters’s damaged cocaine-addict, to Moore’s untethered trophy wife to Macy’s sad-sack former quiz kid game-show champion—all wending their various paths toward redemption. 

Tickets: $17.50 / $12 senior and students / $10 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.