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1999, Drama, 3h 8m

What to know

Critics Consensus

An eruption of feeling that's as overwhelming as it is overwrought, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia reaches a fevered crescendo and sustains it thanks to its fearlessly committed ensemble. Read critic reviews

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Magnolia   photos.

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.

Rating: R (Language|Drug Use|Sexuality|Violence)

Genre: Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Producer: Paul Thomas Anderson , JoAnne Sellar

Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson

Release Date (Theaters): Jan 7, 2000  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Feb 6, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA): $22.5M

Runtime: 3h 8m

Distributor: New Line Cinema

Production Co: Ghoulardi Film Company, New Line Cinema, Magnolia Project

Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Jason Robards

Earl Partridge

Julianne Moore

Linda Partridge

Frank T.J. Mackey

Philip Seymour Hoffman

John C. Reilly

Jim Kurring

Melora Walters

Claudia Wilson Gator

Jeremy Blackman

Stanley Spector

Michael Bowen

Rick Spector

William H. Macy

Donnie Smith

Philip Baker Hall

Jimmy Gator

Melinda Dillon

Emmanuel Johnson

Michael Murphy

Alan Kligman

Luis Guzmán

April Grace

Orlando Jones

Burt Ramsey, Prologue Narrator

Henry Gibson

Thurston Howell

Felicity Huffman

Alfred Molina

Solomon Solomon

Paul Thomas Anderson

Michael De Luca

Executive Producer

Lynn Harris

Daniel Lupi

Co-Producer

JoAnne Sellar

Dylan Tichenor

Film Editing

Cassandra Kulukundis

Robert Elswit

Cinematographer

Fiona Apple

William Arnold

Production Design

Mark Bridges

Shepherd Frankel

Art Director

David Nakabayashi

Chris Spellman

Set Decoration

Costume Design

Elaine L. Offers

Makeup Artist

News & Interviews for Magnolia

Rank Tom Cruise’s 10 Best Movies

Young Frankenstein , City of God , Mean Girls , and More Certified Fresh Movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime

Critic Reviews for Magnolia

Audience reviews for magnolia.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson always fascinates me with his observations on people, relationships and his filmmaking skills.

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Between 3 and 3.5. So much of this film is faux -- faux wisdom, faux emotionalism, faux neuroticism. What seems real and authentic is mired by the overfocus on it. It is elevated by good performances and a focus on neurosis and guilt. But there is no real catharsis to be found, just unendearingly damaged characters who are self-absorbed and completely neurotic. The style, which can only be described as chaotic and scattered, as if the film itself is on speed, leaves much to be desired. It almost gave me a headache. In the end, I was disappointed -- not my kind of thing I guess. It doesn't hang together in the end. With that said, there is talent, on some level, operating here.

Magnolia is a very good film by director Paul Thomas Anderson. However I don't believe it is his best like so many critics have pointed out. Anderson would hone his craft in his future work, but with Magnolia we get to see a director creating something unique. Anderson has always been one of the finer directors who are able to craft quality films with great casts of talented actors. Magnolia is a sweeping movie that intertwines the lives of different people into a powerful story. I really loved the film, but I just don't feel that it is Thomas Anderson's best. He would later make the far superior Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood. But Magnolia is a fine film that should appeal to viewers looking for a well directed picture that tells a good story. Is it the sweeping masterpiece that viewers have claimed it to be? No, it isn't, but it is worth seeing, and Paul Thomas Anderson's direction is wonderful and he tells an interesting story that is dark and intense. A theme that seems to pop out constantly throughout the film is finding happiness and hope. Magnolia draws its strength from its captivating performances from the cast, and each brings something wonderful to the screen. Although not perfect, Magnolia is a well executed picture that tells a solid story. This is a must see film for fans of the director, and it is a well paced film that you soon won't forget. The cast is what makes this one overcome its shortcomings, and the best actors here that have impressed me are Julianne Moore, John C. Reilley and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I liked Tom Cruise, but I simply thought he was a bit overdoing it in his performance. Magnolia is worth seeing, but like I previously stated, Anderson would later mature as a director with more interesting films that really pushed the envelope even further.

This is a wildly great, if lengthy film of films directed by the great Paul Thomas Anderson. Clocking in at 3 hours and 8 minutes, you would expect there to be plenty of scenes that should have been cut; but no, many could have been cut but none of them should have been. The premise is pretty much a bunch of extremely dramatic stories thrown into one film, and they are all very interesting. The stories are only made better by the incredible performances driving them: it is excruciatingly rare for a film to have this many universally amazing performances. The best of them all would have to be Tom Cruise as an eccentric motivational speaker, who slowly unravels into the most broken of men in a single two-minute scene between him and his father. This is by far the best performance I've ever seen Cruise pull off. The film is overflowing with meaning and metaphor, and I think it would be impossible to fully understand and take everything in the first time around; after all, it's a three-hour film. Magnolia demands repeated viewings and is propelled by a hugely successful set of performances, a nice soundtrack, original writing, and genuinely interesting stories.

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Magnolia streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "Magnolia" streaming on Paramount Plus, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel. It is also possible to buy "Magnolia" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, AMC on Demand as download or rent it on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store online.

Where does Magnolia rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:13:43 AM, 02/29/2024

Magnolia is 486 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 335 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Assassin's Bullet but less popular than At Eternity's Gate.

An epic mosaic of many interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

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Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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  • 78   Metascore
  • 3 hr 8 mins

In this audacious ensemble drama about the intersecting lives of troubled Californians, a dying mogul tries to reunite with his motivational-speaker son, a young quiz-show winner deals with his father's abuse and a drug addict falls for a lonely cop.

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Magnolia

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  • 2000 - Writers Guild Awards - Original Screenplay - nominated
  • 2000 - Critics' Choice Awards - Best Picture - nominated
  • 2000 - Berlin Film Festival - Golden Bear - winner
  • 2000 - Golden Globe - Best Original Song - Motion Picture - nominated

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Tom Cruise to Lead Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s New Film for Warner Bros. and Legendary

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Fresh on the heels of Cruise forging a “ strategic partnership ” with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, Warner Bros. and Legendary are in negotiations to acquire a new film from Alejandro González Iñárritu that will star Cruise, sources told IndieWire.

The untitled project marks “The Revenant” auteur’s latest collaboration with his “Birdman” co-writers Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone, with Sabina Berman also sharing a screenwriting credit. Cruise is set to produce along with Legendary.

Plot details are being kept under wraps.

Warner Bros. and Legendary did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s requests for comment.

Cruise, meanwhile, will next be seen in the eighth “Mission: Impossible” film, and a third “Top Gun” movie is also reportedly in the works over at Paramount . IndieWire previously reported that Cruise’s Warner Bros. partnership is not exclusive. Cruise formerly starred in “The Last Samurai,” “Magnolia,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Interview with the Vampire,” “Risky Business,” “The Outsiders,” and “Edge of Tomorrow” at Warner Bros. The Iñárritu project would be Cruise’s first feature back at the studio since 2014.

Cruise and Iñárritu are each represented by CAA.

Deadline first reported the news.

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Hollywood Reporter

Tom Cruise to Star in New Alejandro G. Iñárritu Movie

Tom Cruise will star in the new feature from The Revenant filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment are in talks to acquire the package, which marks Iñárritu's first English-language film since the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer The Revenant nearly a decade ago.

Plot details are being kept under wraps for the feature project that was written by Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolás Giacobone.

The project comes after Cruise inked a splashy (but not exclusive) deal with Warner Bros. last month, leading to rampant speculation over what the pact would yield. The feature also fits the bill of rumors that Cruise is eager to work with auteurs after spending much of the past decade on franchise projects, including the  Mission: Impossible  films and  Top Gun: Maverick , all at Paramount. Cruise is currently working on the next  Mission  movie and is still developing a much-touted feature that would be shot in space for Universal and director Doug Liman.

Iñárritu last directed the Spanish-language Netflix drama Bardo . Prior to this, the director was in theaters with The Revenant , which earned over $500 million at the global box office and landed him the best director Oscar. This followed his 2015 best picture, director and original wins for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) .

Cruise has been nominated twice for best actor, in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1990) and Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1997), and once for supporting actor in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (2000). Iñárritu directed DiCaprio to Oscar gold in The Revenant and helped Michael Keaton land a best actor nom for Birdman . The pairing of Cruise and the filmmaker is sure to raise the notion that the actor is hoping for a prestige play.

Warners, meanwhile, has been beefing up its roster of features with top talent in recent months, locking down Ryan Coogler's next feature and greenlighting a Paul Thomas Anderson movie with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star. Legendary and Warners are out in theaters next weekend with Dune 2 , the sequel to Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic.

Cruise is repped by CAA and Greenberg Glusker. Iñárritu is repped by CAA and Gang Tyre.

Deadline first reported the news of the project.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

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Tom Cruise to Star in New Alejandro G. Iñárritu Movie

Screen Rant

10 behind-the-scenes facts about the making of magnolia.

P.T. Anderson is one of the best filmmakers in modern film and Magnolia is one of his best works. Here are some little known facts about the film.

Paul Thomas Anderson 's Magnolia is considered one of the finest films to be produced in the past two decades. The three-hour multi-narrative tale of several interconnected Los Angelinos earned three Oscar nominations and two Golden Globes, including a win for star Tom Cruise in a Supporting Role.

RELATED: 10 Movies That Influenced Paul Thomas Anderson

Also starring Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman , John C. Reilly , Melora Walters, William H. Macy, Philip Baker Hall, and a large supporting ensemble, Magnolia takes place over the course of 24 hours as a series of people grapple with their troubled stations in life. With the film celebrating the 20th anniversary of its theatrical release, here are 10 behind-the-scenes facts about the making of Magnolia .

Original Idea/Final Cut

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Following the massive success of Anderson's previous film, Boogie Nights , New Line Cinema gave him the freedom to make any movie he wanted while retaining Final Cut in the process. Anderson quickly agreed, figuring that he'd never get such an opportunity ever again.

Originally, the idea for Anderson was to make a small, quick, intimate film. He began working on the character of Claudia (Walters) first, but the deeper he got, the more complex the story became.

Script Process

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Anderson wrote most of the screenplay for Magnolia while holed up in Willam H. Macy's isolated cabin in rural Vermont. After spotting a snake outside, Anderson was too afraid to leave the cabin, so he hunkered down and wrote a lengthy manuscript.

In addition, the music of Aimee Man was a major inspiration for Anderson during the screenwriting process. Mann's music is not only featured prominently on the soundtrack but Anderson cribs lyrics from one of her songs and puts them into the dialogue. The instance comes when Claudia asks Jim (Reilly), "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing me again?"

Poster/Trailers

magnolia tom cruise netflix

When it came time to promote the film, New Line pressured Anderson into making Tom Cruise the focal point of the official one-sheet poster. When Anderson told them the movie was more of an ensemble piece than a Tom Cruise film, he took matters into his own hands.

RELATED: Paul Thomas Anderson's Movies Ranked Worst To Best, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Anderson not only designed all of the posters for Magnolia , but he also edited all of the trailers for the film, as well. The main poster features a large Magnolia flower, a visual motif that appears in every single scene in the film.

Earl Partridge

magnolia tom cruise netflix

According to Philip Baker Hall, who has known Anderson since his first film,  Sidney , the character of Earl Partridge (Robards) is based on Anderson's own father, Ernie Anderson. Anderson was a late-night WABC-TV announcer who got his start hosting monster-movies in Cleveland.

Specifically, Hall claims that the scene of Frank T.J. Mackey ( Cruise ) visiting Earl on his deathbed is taken from the director's experience dealing with his father Ernie's terminal cancer.

George C. Scott

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Before Jason Robards was cast Earl Partridge in the film, Anderson approached veteran actor George C. Scott to play the part. However, Scott wasn't too thrilled about the script.

After reading the script, Scott reportedly threw it across the room and profanely intimated that it was the worst thing he'd ever read and that the language was awful. Robards was subsequently cast to play the character dying of lung and brain cancer. Robards died of lung cancer less than a year after the release of the film. Magnolia was his final movie.

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Tom Cruise was such a giant fan of Boogie Nights that he reached out to Anderson on his own to express interest in working with him in the future. As Anderson began writing the script with Cruise in mind, he visited the set of Stanley Kubrick 's Eyes Wide Shut in England and offered Cruise the part of Frank T.J. Mackey.

At first, Cruise was reticent to play a character so unlike his movie star persona. However, Mackey was so different than repressed Bill Harford in Eyes Wide Shut that he was thrilled to accept the role.

Burt Reynolds

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Burt Reynolds earned the only Oscar nomination of his legendary film career for his comeback role in Anderson's Boogie Nights . But when Anderson approached Reynolds to play a role in Magnolia , he said no.

RELATED: 10 Best Burt Reynolds Movies, According To IMDB

The reason for his decline was due to the tension formed between Reynolds and Anderson while on the promotional circuit for Boogie Nights . Reynolds became upset with Anderson during the promo tour and turned down the role. It is not known which character he was offered.

Fiona Apple

magnolia tom cruise netflix

At the time of making the film, Anderson was dating musician Fiona Apple, who made multiple contributions to the final cut. For starters, several of the paintings and artwork hung in the film were created by Apple.

In addition, when Phil Parma (Hoffman) calls the wrong number in the attempt to reach Frank Mackey, the voice of the woman he speaks to is none other than Apple's. Anderson would go on to direct several of Apple music videos, even after separating.

Falling Frogs

magnolia tom cruise netflix

For the iconic segment in which a torrential rain of toads hits Magnolia Blvd, roughly 8,000 rubber frogs were produced and allocated to film the scene. Computer-generated frogs were also used, sparing the harm of real frogs during production.

Anderson got the idea of raining toads from the writings of Charles Fort. While thought to be an allegory, the phenomenon actually occurs when powerful storms pick up frogs when passing over lakes and ponds before dumping them elsewhere. The occurrence once happened to Philip Baker Hall while vacationing in Italy.

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Aside from the white Magnolia flower appearing in every scene, a visual motif in the film features the Biblical passage Exodus 8:2. The paired numbers 8 and 2 are referenced more than 100 times in the film. A few examples include an 82% chance for rain, a blackjack hand of the 8 and 2 of diamonds, a sign for "Exodus 8:2" during the quiz show, etc.

Exodus 8:2 states: "If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country." While making the film, Anderson subtly hinted at the climax of the film wit the recurring use of the numbers 8 and 2.

NEXT: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Boogie Nights

Tom Cruise Teams With Auteur Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu for Next Movie

This will be Cruise's first non-franchise film since 2017.

The Big Picture

  • Tom Cruise is set to star in a new film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
  • The script for the film was written by Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, and Nicolas Giacobone.
  • This will be Cruise's first non-franchise film since 2017.

Tom Cruise recently signed a lucrative deal with Warner Bros. to develop a range of new films. It appears that the iconic actor has now found the first project in that pact, as Cruise is set to star in a new film from acclaimed director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, according to Deadline . While most details of the film haven't been revealed, Cruise is clearly looking to take advantage of his new Warners partnership as soon as possible.

While Cruise's role in the film remains secret — as does almost everything about the film itself — reportedly Iñárritu penned the script sometime in 2023. The script was co-written by Sabina Berman as well as Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone . This serves as a homecoming for Dinelaris and Giacobone, as they co-wrote the script for Birdman , Iñárritu's 2014 film starring Michael Keaton that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Iñárritu will also produce the film alongside Cruise and Legendary Pictures. Legendary's involvement in the secret project doesn't come as much of a surprise, as while the company signed a distribution deal with Sony Pictures a few years ago, they have continued to collaborate extensively with Warner Bros.

Cruise himself signed his non-exclusive deal with Warners this past January, in which he teamed with the studio in a strategic partnership to develop new projects, including a reported series. It is unclear what genre of film Cruise will be tackling with the Iñárritu film, but the pairing does seem to be a pivot for the Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible actor, who is best known for his high-octane action films.

What Kind of Movies Does Alejandro G. Iñárritu Make?

Iñárritu is best known as an auteur director , with art-style films such as the aforementioned Birdman. The award-winning director is a native of Mexico and as such, often creates projects in Spanish — his film with Cruise will be his first English-language feature since The Revenant in 2015. While that film didn't win Best Picture at the Oscars, it did bring home the gold for Best Director for Iñárritu, as well as Best Actor for star Leonardo DiCaprio. The Academy Award for Iñárritu was his second in a row for Best Director after also capturing it the prior year for Birdman.

While Cruise may best be known in recent years as an action star, he has found himself in artistic projects as well — or at least non-action films. Features like Rain Man, Risky Business, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia are among Cruise's most celebrated works, and he is reportedly searching for more auteur directors to work with moving forward. However, he isn't done with action films, either; Mission Impossible 8 is on the way in 2025, and the in-the-works Top Gun: Maverick sequel is likely to see him return as well. So it remains to be seen what type of project Iñárritu will be directing when the camera starts rolling.

Stay tuned to Collider for more information on the upcoming project. Birdman is available to rent on Prime Video.

Birdman Movie Poster

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

A washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.

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Movies

Meet Pickup Artist Ross Jeffries, The Inspiration For Tom Cruise’s Character In ‘Magnolia’

Uproxx authors

I called the hotline number that fed to Ross Jeffries’ Speed Seduction system, and the irony of the situation quickly dawned on me. Here I was scrambling to get in contact with the man who inspired Tom Cruise’s pick-up-artist/self-help guru character in Magnolia , and I was attempting to do so in the same exact way Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character did in the film. The only difference was that Hoffman was able to use the tactic to get in touch with Cruise’s Frank Mackie (granted, it was a life or death situation), while I only received an email address that could have been quickly ascertained had I committed to more internet research. (Perhaps I should have mentioned to the lovely telemarketer that Jeffries’ father’s condition was dire, and one of his last wishes was to speak to his son?)

By the tone and inflection of the woman’s voice — “He gets A LOT of emails” — I figured my correspondence would get lost in the shuffle of men scratching at his digital door begging for the secrets of sensuality to be slid underneath. Can I SEDUCE you into an interview with a very popular website?  read the subject line.   Send. (I decided to continue writing this piece with the hopes that Jeffries would get back to me but also with the awareness that he might not.)

One of the best parts of Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic drama, Magnolia , is Tom Cruise’s performance as Frank T.J. Mackie. In fact, it’s one of Cruise’s best performances, period. If you haven’t see the film, then take a gander at the video below (if you’re into drum and bass music,  you’ll appreciate this even more ), which is the most profane Cruise has ever been with exception to Tropic Thunder.

Anderson was on Marc Maron’s latest WTF podcast , and during the discussion of Magnolia , the auteur dropped a little gem acknowledging Ross Jeffries as the inspiration for Cruise’s Oscar-nominated role. Mackie is one of Anderson’s most charismatic and engrossing characters, but who is this Ross Jeffries guy?

Jeffries website, Seduction.com, houses a short bio on him :

Ross Jeffries is the founder, creator and Master Teacher of the worldwide seduction community. Featured as the mentor to Neil Strauss in the best selling book,  “The Game,”  RJ has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of men around the world, since 1991, guiding them to the success with women they truly desire and deserve.

After a brief perusal of his blog headlines, this man’s function in society began to come into focus even more:

“Bring In 2015 With A Bang (Literally)”

“Touching Technique That Drives Her Crazy”

“I’m A Perpetual Mental Masturbator”

At the center of Jeffries’ Seduction website is the Speed Seduction system, which claims to be the “Fastest And Easiest Pathway To Rapid Success, With The Women You  Truly  Desire!” The basis of the program is something called NLP, or Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  If you take a stroll through the vegetation of various definitions of NLP, you’ll come across definitions like this one from NLP University :

(NLP) is a  pragmatic school of thought  – an ‘epistemology’ – that addresses the many levels involved in being human. NLP is a multi-dimensional process that involves the development of behavioral competence and flexibility, but also involves strategic thinking and an understanding of the mental and cognitive processes behind behavior.

A more distilled definition of NLP brings us to a system that is based on cognitive and behavioral processes, one that allows you (I’m trying to not use the word “brainwash”) to inundate yourself with proven abilities of success while also instilling influence into others through the use of “linguistic patterns.” Here’s Jeffries discussing putting his program to use back in the early stages of his career.

(It was at this point in the writing process that my phone rang — a Beverly Hills number. To stay ahead of bill collectors I usually screen my calls. But, this was Beverly Hills,  and I’m a fame whore. So I picked it up.)

“Ross Jeffries doesn’t exist,” the voice said.

I was taken aback.

The man on the phone identified himself as Paul Ross. No, he was not Ross Jeffries, but he knew so much about the man. Were they related? Did they work together?

“Ross Jeffries was a character I created,” Ross explained. “A loudmouth, obnoxious, larger than life, sort of a bit of a showman to get the message out there, to be a loud mouthpiece. That character doesn’t really meld with who I am today.”

I felt like I had unplugged from the matrix. Everything that I had learned in the past hour or two was a lie. I wasn’t even sure if the office I was typing this piece in was made of four walls and a roof or just a sequence of numbers.

“Here’s the interesting thing: Paul Thomas Anderson thought that they were going to portray a real person,” Ross told me. “They didn’t realize they were portraying a character created by an actor. Tom Cruise didn’t realize that he was studying a character. He thought he was studying a person. He created a character based on a character. Very few people know this.”

If Ross Jeffries “doesn’t exist,” then how about his teachings? We’re they, like Jeffries, just a facade?

“That’s still there, that’s still valid. There’s just no Ross Jeffries,” Ross said. “There’s no Santa Claus (laughing). As I’ve grown as a person, that character (who) would bang every girl in sight — it doesn’t really fit who I’ve grown to be as a human.”

Indeed, Jeffries doesn’t exist; even his Twitter account is an extension of his character. His friend  Tania Raymonde  was an actor on LOST for several seasons, and he said he regularly discusses with her the intricacies of playing a role. “The entire craft of acting is a fascinating thing. It fascinates me.”

Paul is a practicing Buddhist now. He’s changed the direction of his NLP programs to focus more on business, wealth, and overcoming traumatic experiences. It’s not just about getting laid anymore.

“I’ve never expressed hatred towards woman,” Ross said. “I no longer hate anyone. That part has been burned out by my Buddhist practice. I don’t deny gender differences, either. You can call me anything. Names don’t bother me anymore.”

Ross didn’t have the time, nor did it seem like he cared to explore in detail with me, the exact machinations behind his change in philosophy, but it was clear he was no longer wholeheartedly in the seduction business. “I don’t want to promote Seduction.com,” he said. “This is not what you expected, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” I replied.

As for Cruise’s portrayal of his character in Magnolia —  did they get it right?

“Mackie is more manic. Mackie is far more misogynistic. He’s basically taking stuff from where I was in 1998,” Ross explained. “He’s also much shorter than I am. Remember when Mackie had the audience take out their calendars? I didn’t actually give them physical calendars, but I did have them say ‘By the 5th of May I’ll be having my way. By the 8th of June I’ll have their poon.’ That kind of rhyming stuff I got from Muhammed Ali.”

Paul Ross is continuing to use the name Ross Jeffries, because it’s “a brand,” but even though the focus of his seminars and programs have shifted more towards the arena of self-improvement, he’s not altogether abandoning his role as seduction guru.

“I’m temporarily stepping back from it so I can find a better way to teach it. I’m not getting out of it completely.”

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The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Tom Cruise's Character In Magnolia

Tom Cruise as Frank Mackey in Magnolia

Tom Cruise has quite an impressive body of work and while it's difficult for some to pick a career-best performance from the actor, I would choose one without hesitation: Frank T.J. Mackey in "Magnolia." Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus released in 1999 and follows a tapestry of interwoven characters as they struggle through their lives in the San Fernando Valley. At over three hours long, the film certainly isn't for everyone, but I think it's a masterpiece . Parts of it were written around the incredible music of Aimee Mann, who soundtracked much of the film, along with composer extraordinaire Jon Brion.

In "Magnolia," Cruise plays a motivational speaker of sorts, Frank T.J. Mackey, whose main objective is "Seduce and Destroy." Mackey is an unrepentant misogynist preaching his seduction skills to a room full of men all too eager to listen. He's a charismatic jerk teaching seminars on how to get laid, mainly through subterfuge, all while treating women as objects to be conquered. In other words, this is not an easy guy to root for. The most fascinating thing about the actor's performance isn't how good he is at inhabiting the role, but rather the humanity he brings to a character who, at first glance, seems to have none. Mackey is unlike any character Cruise has played before or since.

According to Grantland , the role was actually written for Cruise, who became a fan of Anderson after watching "Boogie Nights." While he might seem like he sprang directly from the director's imagination, this seemingly over-the-top character was actually inspired by a real person. So, who served as the spark for Frank T.J. Mackey?

Art imitates life

On the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast (via Uproxx ) Paul Thomas Anderson revealed that the inspiration behind Frank T.J. Mackey was real-life pickup artist, Ross Jeffries. I can't possibly do justice to all the details contained therein, but you can (but probably shouldn't) visit Jeffries' website at seduction.com . The site has a description of him that reads:

"Ross Jeffries™ is the founder, creator and Master Teacher of the worldwide seduction community. Featured as the mentor to Neil Strauss in the best-selling book, "The Game", RJ has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of men around the world, since 1991, guiding them to the success with women they truly desire and deserve."

One of his recent blog posts is called "Are You The Money Man Or The Honey Man?" and explains how you can be "The Vaginal Victor On V-Day!" Jeffries uses a system he's aptly titled Speed Seduction and his website has quite an extensive sales pitch for his online program, which includes a (what's the opposite of the phrase "treasure trove"?) plethora of lines like "How to use 'weasel phrases' to open her mind for instant and total sexual acceptance!" I have yet to look into what a weasel phrase is.

Despite this still seemingly active website, a man identifying himself as Paul Ross told Uproxx in 2015, "Ross Jeffries doesn't exist." He continued:

"Ross Jeffries was a character I created, a loudmouth, obnoxious, larger than life, sort of a bit of a showman to get the message out there, to be a loud mouthpiece. That character doesn't really meld with who I am today."

In regard to the movie, he stated:

"Here's the interesting thing: Paul Thomas Anderson thought that they were going to portray a real person. They didn't realize they were portraying a character created by an actor. Tom Cruise didn't realize that he was studying a character. He thought he was studying a person. He created a character based on a character."

As for Tom Cruise's performance:

"Mackey is more manic. Mackey is far more misogynistic. He's basically taking stuff from where I was in 1998. He's also much shorter than I am. Remember when Mackey had the audience take out their calendars? I didn't actually give them physical calendars, but I did have them say 'By the 5th of May I'll be having my way. By the 8th of June I'll have their poon.' That kind of rhyming stuff I got from Muhammed Ali."

He has indeed expanded his work into other areas, releasing a sales training book under the name Paul Ross. Ross, now a practicing Buddhist, says he still uses the name Ross Jeffries because it's "a brand," but that the work no longer reflects who he is.

According to Grantland, Jeffries is a former paralegal and brought a trademark attorney to see "Magnolia." Though he protested that Anderson "lifted some stuff almost word for word," Jeffries chose not to attempt a lawsuit because he liked the movie.

An actor playing an actor playing a role

As Mackey gives his ridiculous stage performance to an audience of men listening with rapt attention, it's impossible for the viewer to take their eyes off him, even as they are disgusted by what he is saying. Cruise is positively magnetic in the role, especially as his layers begin to fall away during his filmed interview with Gwenovier (April Grace). In a span of minutes, Frank goes from flexing in his tighty-whities to staring at Gwenovier like a caged animal: angry, frightened, and trapped. We don't immediately know why Frank is lying about his family trauma, but we do know he is no longer in control — though, perhaps he never was. It is Cruise's nuanced performance during this interview that allows his later breakdown to truly resonate.

Paul Ross considers Ross Jeffries a role he played that he's largely outgrown and feels as though Cruise didn't understand that he was a character playing a character. However, I would argue that's exactly how Cruise portrayed Frank Mackey, as someone hiding under a facade — albeit a convincing one. His final lecture sees him unravel, though his audience seems none the wiser. However, it's the reunion with his long estranged father (Jason Robards) that causes Frank to truly fall apart. Frank's emotional collapse at his father's deathbed is one of the film's most poignant moments. According to Grantland, Cruise was largely drawing on the experience of losing his own father. Much like Mackey, Cruise didn't get to spend much time with his dad. This storyline also proved cathartic for Anderson, who'd lost his father as well.

In what begins with a single take, viewers watch Mackey's face run the gamut of human emotion. He hates his father for leaving them and forcing him to take care of his dying mother as a teenager, but at the same time he's already mourning the life they never had together now that it's gone forever. The scene actually played out a bit differently in the script, with Frank immediately breaking down upon arrival, but Cruise thought it didn't feel quite right and made some changes. At this point, fans are more used to seeing Cruise perform increasingly wild stunts for his action movies. However, for me, there was no greater stunt than the one he pulled in making me cry right along with someone as evidently awful as Frank Mackey. Which I do. Every single time.

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Tom Cruise has had one of Hollywood's most varied and exciting careers, from his days as a teen idol to his award-winning dramatic turns to his larger-than-life action-hero roles. Here are 10 of the best Tom Cruise movies to stream.

UPDATE: 10/21/22

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Tom Cruise is genuinely scary as a suave hitman in Michael Mann's slick crime thriller. Jamie Foxx plays a cab driver who unknowingly picks up Cruise's contract killer and agrees to drive him to various locations for a hefty sum. Foxx's Max Durocher soon discovers that the man he knows as Vincent is actually on a killing spree, murdering different targets at each stop.

Mann builds a tense back-and-forth between the two men, making them into worthy adversaries even though Vincent seems to have every advantage. Mann gives Los Angeles at night a gorgeous, otherworldly feel, the perfect backdrop for this battle between the sadistic and the noble.

Collateral is streaming on Netflix ($9.99+ per month) and Paramount+ ($4.99+ per month after a seven-day free trial) and is available for digital purchase ($9.99+) and rental ($2.99+) at Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

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Before "legacy sequels" were all the rage, Martin Scorsese directed this 25-years-later follow-up to 1961's The Hustler, with Paul Newman returning as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson. Eddie is older but not necessarily wiser, and his love for the game is rekindled when he spots hotshot young player Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise).

Cruise and Newman have excellent chemistry as two control freaks who develop a wary respect but maintain their rivalry. Scorsese shoots the pool scenes with flair, bringing a dynamic excitement to the many games of nine-ball. The movie is a winning combination of Scorsese's cinematic creativity and the Hollywood charisma of its two stars.

The Color of Money is is available for digital purchase ($9.99+) and rental ($3.99) at Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

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Although it underwhelmed at the box office, Doug Liman's sci-fi action movie has proven worthy of its critical acclaim by building a dedicated following. Tom Cruise plays against his action-hero type as a whiny, self-serving military public affairs officer. He's thrown into the middle of a battle against aliens and finds himself in a time loop, returning to the same point every time he gets killed.

Emily Blunt plays the hardened battlefield sergeant who trains him to harness this unexpected ability. It's a clever, fast-paced, and playful take on a familiar sci-fi concept, with Cruise and Blunt making a perfect team of reluctant allies.

Edge of Tomorrow is available for digital purchase ($9.99+) and rental ($3.99) at Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

Author Anne Rice was initially outraged by the casting of Tom Cruise as her popular vampire character Lestat de Lioncourt, but she changed her mind completely after seeing Neil Jordan's film. Cruise may be an unlikely choice to play the decadent, narcissistic Lestat, but he captures the dark hedonism of Rice's vampires perfectly.

Brad Pitt matches him as Lestat's protégé Louis, and Kirsten Dunst gives one of the best-ever child performances as forever-young vampire Claudia. Jordan brings the eroticism and menace of Rice's vampires to life, telling a centuries-spanning story as narrated by Louis to a rapt reporter played by Christian Slater.

Interview With the Vampire is streaming for free with ads on Tubi and is available for digital purchase ($7.99+) and rental ($3.99) from Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

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Jerry Maguire's catch phrases have been so extensively quoted and recycled that it's easy to forget this movie is more than just a collection of quips. It's a passionate, open-hearted romantic comedy from a master of the form, writer-director Cameron Crowe, and it features one of Tom Cruise's most purely likable performances.

He plays the title character, an idealistic sports agent who leaves his secure job to start his own firm with just one client, NFL wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.). Jerry approaches negotiating with the same enthusiasm and honesty that he brings to his romance with single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger).

Jerry Maguire is streaming on HBO Max ($9.99+ per month) and is available for digital purchase ($12.99+) and rental ($2.99+) from Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

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Tom Cruise is only one part of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling, multi-character epic, but he may be the most memorable part. Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of chauvinistic motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey, who's long estranged from his father Earl (Jason Robards).

Frank's arc of reconciling his feelings about his father ties into the movie's overall theme of redemption and forgiveness, which plays out in multiple overlapping storylines. The stellar cast also includes Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and William H. Macy, but even among such amazing talent, Cruise stands out.

Magnolia is streaming for free via local libraries on Kanopy .

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The Mission: Impossible movies have become an all-consuming project for Tom Cruise in recent years, and they remain one of the most satisfying blockbuster franchises in Hollywood. The series reached an apex with this fourth movie, directed by animation veteran Brad Bird.

Bird brings an animator's anything-goes approach to the movie's massive set pieces, including Cruise's Ethan Hunt climbing the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, still one of the greatest stunts ever captured onscreen. He also puts together a top-notch team to support Cruise, adding Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner as Ethan's fellow covert agents, and promoting Simon Pegg in what would become a key franchise role.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is streaming on  Paramount+ ($4.99+ per month after a seven-day free trial).

A sci-fi movie focused as much on creative design and heady ideas as it is on action, Oblivion stars Tom Cruise as one of the last people left on Earth, ostensibly guarding the last remnants of human civilization following a deadly alien invasion. Cruise's Jack Harper and his partner Victoria Olson (Andrea Riseborough) start to realize that something isn't right about their supposed mission to repair essential technology before joining the human race's migration into space.

Oblivion is full of plot twists that don't always make sense, but Cruise convincingly plays every emotional reaction. He pulls the audience along on this sleek, mind-bending future journey.

Oblivion is available for digital purchase ($11.99+) and rental ($3.99) at Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

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Anyone who only knows Risky Business from the often-parodied moment of Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear may be surprised to discover an emotionally engaging and sometimes dark coming-of-age dramedy. It's a bit like a cross between Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Graduate, with Cruise as a recent high school graduate who finds a connection with a prostitute played by Rebecca De Mornay.

It features the requisite crazy parties and occasionally crass jokes of an '80s teen comedy, but that's balanced by a strong undercurrent of melancholy. Cruise captures the emptiness of a privileged teen staring into a predetermined future that he starts to realize may be meaningless.

Risky Business is streaming on Netflix ($9.99+ per month) and  HBO Max ($9.99+ per month).

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Tom Cruise is probably not the first name that would come to mind to play a German officer during World War II, but the filmmakers behind Valkyrie pull it off. They cast Cruise and actors of various nationalities as the members of a secret German organization that conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and nearly succeeded.

Set in the waning days of the war, Valkyrie generates plenty of suspense, even though anyone watching almost certainly already knows the outcome. It's a fascinating history lesson, a taut thriller, and a true ensemble piece. Cruise plays the man in charge of the plan, but he makes room for the likes of Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Kenneth Branagh, all working toward the same goal.

Valkyrie is available for digital purchase ($12.99+) and rental ($3.99) at Amazon , iTunes , Google Play , Vudu , and other digital outlets.

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This 2017 Tom Cruise thriller is the most popular movie on Netflix. Here’s why you should watch it

Joe Allen

As an aging movie star who is driven to entertain his audience, Tom Cruise has committed himself to more and more daring stunts with each movie he puts out. In each of these movies, Cruise seems to be playing a version of himself, a harried man who is also confident that he’s the only one who can keep it all going.

  • It’s a grounded crime thriller
  • It’s a morally murky movie

It lets Cruise do plenty of his own flying

There was a time, though, when Cruise was willing to deliver much more full-bodied performances in everything from Born on the Fourth of July  to  Magnolia . Even more recently, though, Cruise has found vehicles that allow him to give a more complete performance, and one of those movies is now trending on Netflix . American Made  was released in 2017, and its success on Netflix is suggestive of what the movie does well. Here are three reasons you should check it out:

It’s a grounded crime thriller

While most of Cruise’s recent movies paint him as a do-gooder,  American Made  casts him in the opposite light. Cruise stars as Barry White, a real-life TWA pilot who is recruited by the CIA to do reconnaissance for the agency in South America. Barry ultimately winds up leading a massive operation that gives birth to a new cartel and gets him on the wrong side of the law.

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Cruise is not playing a good guy here. Instead, Barry is out to make as much money as possible, and then avoid the consequences of his actions. It’s a thoroughly compelling performance, in part because it’s so different from what he’d done to date.

It’s a morally murky movie

Although plenty of movies about the CIA offer a fairly rosy picture of what the agency did over the course of its history,  American Made  is unafraid to dive into the less savory aspects of the agency’s legacy.  American Made  takes place primarily during the Reagan administration and is honest about the questionable actions of the CIA.

The movie may be called  American Made , but that doesn’t mean its patriotic. In fact, it’s a movie about some of the worst things that have been done in the country’s name in recent years.

Cruise is famously someone who does his own stunts, but if you’re not an action person, it may come as a relief to learn that  American Made  isn’t really an action movie.

It does have plenty of real aerial photography, though, and that’s thanks in large part to the fact that Cruise is actually flying the planes through most of the movie.  American Made  is really just a sturdy drama, and it’s the kind of movie that rarely gets made anymore. That’s part of the reason it feels so special, and it’s what has turned the movie into such a success story on Netflix.

American Made is now streaming on Netflix.

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House of Ninjas | Official Trailer | Netflix

Between Warrior and The Brothers Sun, action fans have had it pretty good this year on Netflix. And while we predicted that Warrior would be among the most popular shows on Netflix, we didn't foresee that House of Ninjas would be close behind. This Netflix original series was made for Japan, but House of Ninjas has already exceeded expectations by finding an audience in America as well.

When Netflix recently added The Abyss to its lineup, there probably weren't very high expectations for it. After all, it's not James Cameron's The Abyss from 1989. Instead, it's a Swedish disaster film that is now one of the most popular movies on Netflix.

That's the thing about Netflix's algorithm: It's very unpredictable. More often then not, seemingly random films are suddenly more popular now than they ever were when they hit theaters. In this case, American audiences would have never seen The Abyss if it hadn't suddenly arrived on a large platform like Netflix. But if you're on the fence about checking it out, here are three reasons to watch The Abyss on Netflix. Tuva Novotny grounds the movie with her performance

Last Thanksgiving, a movie came out that united both audiences and critics alike in mutual enjoyment. No, it wasn't Disney's G-rated Wish,-- it was Eli Roth's very R-rated horror movie Thanksgiving. First born as a fake trailer in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, Thanksgiving was fleshed out by Roth as a full feature with a cast that includes Patrick Dempsey, Gina Gershon, and Addison Rae.

Thanksgiving is now on Netflix and is currently one of the most popular movies on the streamer. If you're craving more frights, here are three movies also streaming on Netflix that should satisfy your bloodlust. Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021)

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That may not be the "Magnolia" you recall. It was not quite the film I recalled, either, and now that I have seen it again, my admiration has only deepened. On its release in 1999, our focus was perhaps distracted by the theme of coincidence, the intersecting storylines, and above all the astonishing coup with which Paul Thomas Anderson ended his film. Nor was the film a melancholy dirge; it was entertaining, even funny, always fascinating.

The central theme is cruelty to children, and its lasting effect. This is closely linked to a loathing or fear of behaving as we are told, or think, that we should. There are many major characters, but in the film's 180-minute running time, there is time to develop them all and obtain performances that seem to center on moments of deep self-revelation. Let's begin with two smart kids.

One is now an adult, still calling himself "Quiz Kid Donnie Smith" ( William H. Macy ). He was briefly famous as a child on a TV show and still expects people to remember him. Now he works in a furniture store, is a drunk, desperately needs money to get braces on his teeth in the forlorn hope that they will attract the bartender he has a crush on -- who also wears braces. He has an outburst about his childhood, but his most touching moment is when he cries out that he knows he has love, he knows he can love, he knows he is worth loving.

The other smart kid, still about 9 or 10, is Stanley Spector ( Jeremy Blackman ), star genius on the TV show "What Do Kids Know?" He has all the answers. But on one crucial segment, he refuses to perform because, refused a trip to the toilet, he has wet his pants and refuses to stand up. His father browbeats him.

The show's emcee is Jimmy Gator ( Philip Baker Hall ), who has learned he has two months to live. He hasn't seen Claudia ( Melora Walters ), his daughter from his second marriage, for 10 years. She believes he molested her. He doesn't remember. Now she is a hopeless cocaine addict. The policeman ( John C. Reilly ) who appears at her door doesn't notice her nervous tics and asks her out on a date, which ends by them both confessing deep shame. And later the same cop observes Quiz Kid Donnie Smith trying to scale a pole to break into the furniture store, hears his confession, forgives him, helps him make restitution.

The show is produced by "Big Earl" Partridge ( Jason Robards ). His long-estranged son is the motivational huckster Frank Mackey ( Tom Cruise ), who fills hotel conference rooms with lectures on how to conquer women. When he was a child, his father abandoned the boy and his mother, and Frank had to nurse her through death by cancer. Now his father is dying of the same disease, attended by Phil the nurse ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ). His second wife ( Julianne Moore ), who married him for money, now finds she loves him and regrets that she cheated on him. The old man mumbles in pain to his nurse that he truly loved his first wife and hates himself for cheating on her.

But a plot description could take up all my space, and more. I have given enough to suggest the way the sins of the parents are visited on the children, how so many people lead lives of desperation, how a few try to help. The astonishing thing about this film, written and directed by Anderson when he was only 28 (and had made " Boogie Nights " two years earlier and " Hard Eight " three) is that it is so wise and sympathetic. He sees that we all have our reasons.

As an act of filmmaking, it draws us in and doesn't let go. It begins deceptively, with a little documentary about amazing coincidences (including the scuba diver scooped by a fire-fighting plane and dumped on a forest fire). This is narrated by magician and spellbinder Ricky Jay , whose book Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women can be seen open before the studious little Stanley. Jay's voice appears again at the end, to remind us that coincidences and strange events do happen, and they are as real as everything else. If you could stand back far enough, in fact, everything would be revealed as a coincidence. What we call "coincidences" are limited to the ones we happen to notice.

Is the film therefore defending itself against the way its lives are intertwined? Not at all. I think it is arguing that we must mind our behavior, because it has an effect far beyond our ability to witness. A small boy, abandoned by his father, left to care for his dying mother, grows up into a complete fraud who gets rich by teaching men how to mistreat women. Why does he hate women instead of men? Tom Cruise has a scene at the deathbed of his father (deliberately framed to evoke Brando at his dead wife's body in " Last Tango in Paris "), and his hands are so tightly clenched the fingers seem bloodless. His hatred is for this man, but how has it been transferred to women?

His breakdown during a lecture is mirrored by little Stanley and Jimmy Gator, who both find themselves unable to perform on the TV show. And the second wife of Jason Robards (Julianne Moore) confesses to his nurse but cannot confess to the old man and seeks another way out.

And Claudia cannot behave as she should on a date. And earlier that night, the cop has shamed himself by losing his gun and being unable to make an arrest. And Quiz Kid Donnie cannot tell another man that he loves him.

In one beautiful sequence, Anderson cuts between most of the major characters all simultaneously singing Aimee Mann's "It's Not Going to Stop." A directorial flourish? You know what? I think it's a coincidence. Unlike many other "hypertext movies" with interlinking plots, "Magnolia" seems to be using the device in a deeper, more philosophical way. Anderson sees these people joined at a level below any possible knowledge, down where fate and destiny lie. They have been joined by their actions and their choices.

And all leads to the remarkable, famous, sequence near the film's end when it rains frogs. Yes. Countless frogs, still alive, all over Los Angeles, falling from the sky. That this device has sometimes been joked about puzzles me. I find it a way to elevate the whole story into a larger realm of inexplicable but real behavior. We need something beyond the human to add another dimension. Frogs have rained from the sky eight times this century, but never mind the facts. Attend instead to Exodus 8:2, which is cited on a placard in the film: "And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs." Let who go? In this case, I believe, it refers not to people, but to fears, shames, sins.

"Magnolia" is one of those rare films that works in two entirely different ways. In one sense, it tells absorbing stories, filled with detail, told with precision and not a little humor. On another sense, it is a parable. The message of the parable, as with all good parables, is expressed not in words but in emotions. After we have felt the pain of these people, and felt the love of the policeman and the nurse, we have been taught something intangible, but necessary to know. That Paul Thomas Anderson thinks and creates in this way is proven again in his latest film, " There Will Be Blood " (2007). It is another film with an enigmatic ending, one that "Magnolia" teaches me I will have to think more carefully about.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Molli and Max in the Future

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Brian Tallerico

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Monica Castillo

Film credits.

Magnolia movie poster

Magnolia (1999)

Rated R for strong language, drug use, sexuality and some violence

188 minutes

Melora Walters as Claudia Gator

Tom Cruise as Frank Mackey

Jeremy Blackman as Stanley

Ricky Jay as Burt/narrator

Alfred Molina as Solomon

John C. Reilly as Officer Kurring

William H. Macy as Donnie Smith

Julianne Moore as Linda Partridge

Jason Robards as Earl Partridge

Philip Baker Hall as Jimmy Gator

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Phil

Written and directed by

  • Paul Thomas Anderson

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Tom Cruise’s ‘Magnolia’ Performance Will Never Not Make Me Cry

photo illustration of Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA pink background

Where to Stream:

These days, we’re much more likely to see Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane than we are jumping into an under-the-radar, daring drama. And that’s just fine! The  Mission: Impossible  movies only seem to get better with each new installment (I’m legitimately counting down the days till Fallout ), and Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world for a reason – he’s damn good at it. He’s an All-American hero (well, if you don’t think about all that  Scientology stuff ), a guy we can all get behind. We want to see him beat the bad guys and flash that winning smile, because he’s Tom Cruise, goddamnit, and that’s what he was born to do. Before his résumé was mostly action fare and sequels, however, Cruise appeared in a wide variety of films, from  Born on the Fourth of July  and  A Few Good Men  to  Jerry Maguire  and  Eyes Wide Shut . All these films (and many more) have established him as one of our most versatile working actors (though we’re wont to forget this nowadays), but there’s one Tom Cruise movie I’ll never be able to shake:  Magnolia . On his 56th birthday, we’re looking back at his most devastating role.

Putting the fact that  Magnolia  is one of my favorite films of all time aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better Tom Cruise performance anywhere else. It may seem like an impossible mission to pick a “best” Cruise performance, and this isn’t discounting the incredible work he’s done elsewhere. But Frank “T.J.” Mackey is in an entirely different league from any other character Cruise has ever played. This miracle of a performance exists because of the perfect marriage of Cruise’s talent and willingness to  go there  and writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. Mackey is a crass monster, a man whose entire brand is built on treating women like sex toys. When he struts across that stage and demands that we “RESPECT THE COCK!”, it’s difficult not to immediately despise him – but that twisted charisma makes it impossible to look away. We know he can’t be entirely rotten to his core, but is there anyone worth redeeming beneath it all? Over the film’s three hours, we chip away at his thorny exterior until we finally reach the trembling boy inside – and there’s nothing quite like the catharsis that ensues.

Magnolia  offers us a glimpse into Cruise’s vast emotional spectrum; from the clownish, loathsome man riding high on stage to the angry, petulant child caught off-guard during his interview, we see his highs and lows, his fears, his rage. These libido-fueled moments may act as a testament to Cruise’s versatility, but the real magic happens when he finally confronts the father who abandoned him. Every inhale feels totally honest, and it’s likely because it was: Cruise reportedly drew from his own experience with his father  for the scene. I’ve watched the scene dozens of times, and I catch something new with every viewing. The first part of his monologue is all in one take, and the steady rise in tension is nearly unbearable.

“I’m not gonna cry,” he spits out, but his words have already betrayed him – two tears roll down his cheek. It’s when my own tears begin to flow, too, without fail, every single damn time. We’ve spent over two hours hating this man and all that he stands for, but in that moment, and in the complete, full-body sobs that follow, he’s just as vulnerable and devastated as the rest of us, navigating this impossible scenario the best way he can. Cruise goes to a place that few actors might ever dare, reaches deep into his soul to find heartache and resentment and agony that many of us likely can’t fathom.

Tom Cruise may be able to pull off death-defying stunts better than anyone else out there, but he’s accomplished no greater feat than that of  Magnolia , a true spectacle of emotional proportions. Frank “T.J.” Mackey is more impressive than scaling any skyscraper or hanging off the side of a plane, because in the end, Cruise does the impossible: he makes us  feel  for someone we want to see fail. And that’s a mission most would never accept.

Where to Stream  Magnolia

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magnolia tom cruise netflix

Magnolia: What Happened To The Cast?

Frank T.J. Mackey staring

As the book says: We may be through with the past, but the past is never through with us.

1999's "Magnolia" was an epic of ordinary lives intersecting, brought together by connections and catastrophes. Since the film is focused on both coincidences and the power of the past over the present, it has an unusual and indelible combination of miraculousness and psychological realism. After all, this is a movie that starts with a dead scuba diver trapped in a burned-up tree and ends with a rain of frogs — but in the middle, it's full of disillusioned child prodigies, misogynistic pick-up artists, dying men, hopeless love, humiliation, and trauma.

That's a lot to tackle, even if you're P.T. Anderson. So it's unsurprising that the film also sports an unbelievably stacked cast, with even the most minor of roles filled by some fan favorites. Narrowing things down to the movie's most memorable characters — big or small — in the spirit of "Magnolia" itself, let's talk a little about how this shared bit of their cinematic past helped lead to their different futures.

Patton Oswalt as Delmer Darion

Delmer Darion is one of the best oddities of "Magnolia": the scuba diver who, through a bizarre but logical chain of events, winds up dead and tangled in the branches of a burned tree. "Magnolia" is full of blink-and-you-miss-it performances by great actors, but worth mention is Patton Oswalt's work as Delmer. The role is too weird and too essential to the movie's themes to be forgotten.

Oswalt has gone on to have an incredible, genre-spanning career that hopped around effortlessly between styles and platforms. He's best known for his comedy — stand-up or otherwise — and has had memorable roles on everything from "The King of Queens" to "Veep" to " MODOK ." But don't skip his dramas, either. As unexpected badass Constable Bob Sweeney, he was one of the most memorable guest stars on "Justified," and he gave a startlingly powerful performance in the unsettling film "Big Fan." Oh, and don't forget "Ratatouille," quite possibly the most underrated of all the Pixar films . His talent for combining humor with raw pathos makes Oswalt an asset wherever he goes — and much of that began with "Magnolia," one of his first big roles.

Cleo King as Marcie

In a 2000 interview with Nitrate , Paul Thomas Anderson explained that he chopped out most of a planned plotline but left in certain parts, including Marcie and the dead body in her closet. He's glad he did: "The movie needs something that has mystery." You can't help wondering about the rest of her story, but the enigma of it all makes Marcie stand out.

Then again, she may stand out just because of Cleo King . King made numerous guest appearances on TV shows both before and after "Magnolia," managing to work steadily and widely while also developing connections with some excellent high-profile directors like David Milch ("NYPD Blue" and "Deadwood"), Lars von Trier ("Dogville"), and David Gordon Green ("Pineapple Express"). She possesses an instant but complex charisma that makes you notice her and want to see more. Fortunately, there continues to be regular new work to see — most recently, King has appeared on episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," "Mom," and "Young Sheldon," and she had a recurring role on the Netflix adaptation of "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

April Grace as Gwenovier

Gwenovier has the unfortunate task of trying to interview the deliberately provocative Frank T.J. Mackey. She's a woman who has to quiz a man about a life spent trying to "seduce and destroy." But she tackles the job skillfully and with aplomb, owing much of that poise to her actress, April Grace .

After "Magnolia," Grace went on to supporting movie roles and guest-starring spots. You can spot her on a lot of TV crime dramas — she tends to get law enforcement roles a lot, even on non law-enforcement-focused shows like "Joan of Arcadia," "Fringe," or "Pretty Little Liars." When she doesn't have a badge, she's often either a doctor ("Criminal Minds" or "Joker") or a lawyer ("Boston Legal" and "Family Law"). Clearly, there's something about Grace that suggests quiet, astute professionalism — and Gwenovier was an early opportunity to showcase these skills in one of the '90s most distinctive films.

Alfred Molina as Solomon Solomon

Alfred Molina turns in a one-scene wonder of a performance in "Magnolia" as Solomon Solomon, Donnie Smith's utterly (and hilariously) fed-up boss. Laying out the reasons Donnie has to go, it's hard to not agree that William H. Macy's sad-sack former quiz kid needs to be canned.

Molina's had a long and storied career , and rightly so. Not too many actors could embody both Spider-Man villain Doc Ock and the sweet, quietly tragic George in 2014's "Love Is Strange." He deserves all the lead parts he can get, but "Magnolia" shows why he's one of cinema's best scene-stealers even in minor roles: No matter who he's playing, he brings incredible charisma and nuance to the floor. Accordingly, he's done some of his best work in supporting parts, gathering up multiple nominations for playing a belligerent but loving father in "An Education."

It's worth noting that Molina is in the process of becoming one of the few actors to reprise a role across two different series: he is Doctor Otto Octavius in both 2004's "Spider-Man 2" with Tobey Maguire and the upcoming " Spider-Man: No Way Home " with Tom Holland. It's a unique career distinction for one of the most dependable supporting actors of his generation.

Felicity Huffman as Cynthia

Felicity Huffman was well-equipped to play Cynthia, a brisk TV station employee. So well-equipped, in fact, that she was right in the middle of starring on Aaron Sorkin's underrated and gone-too-soon dramedy "Sports Night," which focused on the travails of a late-night sports show. After it went off the air, she landed significant roles in indie dramas like "Transamerica" and TV shows like "Desperate Housewives," where she starred for 8 seasons as the intense, slightly frazzled Lynette, a driven corporate woman out-of-place in the world of stay-at-home motherhood.

In recent years, she's had some knockout dramatic roles on "American Crime" and especially "When They See Us," where she played prosecutor Linda Fairstein — both parts where she showed she wasn't afraid to get dark and viciously unlikable. Unfortunately, Huffman was part of a college admissions scandal  alongside her husband and "Magnolia" co-star William H. Macy (they married two years before the film was released), putting a significant stain on their reputations.

Michael Murphy as Alan Kligman, Esq.

Anyone who knows Paul Thomas Anderson knows that he loves Robert Altman — and anyone who loves Robert Altman knows that he loved Michael Murphy.

In "Magnolia,"  Michael Murphy plays Alan Kligman, the lawyer to the Partridges. He was a prolific actor for years before, however — most notably acting for Altman in twelve films, TV series and miniseries including such classics as "M*A*S*H," "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," " Nashville " and the groundbreaking political mockumentary "Tanner '88." Beyond Altman, he has forged the career of a  great character actor, performing in a little bit of everything: "Law and Order," "The Bridge," "White House Down," the indie heartbreaker "Away from Her," and more.

He's tried to keep his career fresh, and he likes letting it lead him to new things. In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine  in 2015, Murphy explained how doing narration for multiple PBS documentaries turned him into a little bit of a history nerd: He gets sidetracked geeking out about 1800s coal mining. Sampling his career will indeed get you a fair number of history docs — but it will also get you a lot of great snapshots of TV and movie classics, dating all the way back to the '60s.

Henry Gibson as Thurston Howell

With a self-assured, debonair sadism, Henry Gibson's Thurston Howell needles "Quiz Kid" Donnie Smith, eroding any tenuous confidence the guy might have. Yet, Gibson's performance is so wry and darkly charming that you can't help liking him — and you certainly can't help noticing him.

Such was the magic of Henry Gibson, who died of cancer in 2009 . "Magnolia" fell relatively late in his career, but he still had several good years after it, and he packed them with guest star appearances (on shows like "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Stargate: SG-1"), voice work ("King of the Hill," among others), and the occasional movie ("Wedding Crashers"). This was following decades of memorable guest appearances on classic TV series like "77 Sunset Strip," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "F Troop," "Bewitched," "Newhart" and "MacGyver," breakout comedic work as a featured performer on the revolutionary "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," and a scene-stealing turn as an Illinois Nazi in "The Blues Brothers." Another Altman favorite (making him, by extension, an Anderson favorite), Gibson appeared in "The Long Goodbye," Nashville" and the little-seen "HealtH."

One of the best late-career Gibson performances was a notable run on "Boston Legal," where he played a persnickety, easily-riled judge who was always a comedic delight. Take that role alongside Thurston Howell in "Magnolia," and you can see what a gift Gibson had for injecting characters with color and life.

Emmanuel Johnson as Dixon

As explained in that 2000  Nitrate interview with P.T. Anderson , a significant portion of Dixon's plot was cut, leaving him somewhat of a loose end. But the loosely structured "Magnolia" is a movie that feels designed for such occasional loose ends, and thanks to Emmanuel Johnson , Dixon is a memorable loose end — an adorable one, even. In fact, his plot-revealing rap for Officer Jim Kurring is one of the most memorable moments of the film.

Unfortunately, "Magnolia" was Johnson's only major screen credit. He had a minor guest-starring spot on "Family Matters," then appeared as an unnamed character in a TV movie, and that's it. Like a fair number of child actors, he didn't stay in the business for very long, and he hasn't gone back to it. So, while Dixon grabbed attention in this small role, he seems content now to keep his adult life private and low-profile. Still, one can't help but wonder: if his character's role hadn't been trimmed down so substantially, would his post "Magnolia" life have included a more substantial tenure in Tinseltown?

Ricky Jay as Burt Ramsey/Narrator

Ricky Jay was an incredible character actor — an incredible magician, as this New Yorker profile recounts  — and a favorite of Paul Thomas Anderson, also appearing in "Boogie Nights." He had exactly the right combination of showmanship and whimsy for his dual role in "Magnolia," where he plays both Burt Ramsey — Jimmy Gator's colleague and confidant — and the Narrator.

Jay did a lot of excellent work after "Magnolia" — much of it around his deceptively warm, commanding voice, taking on narrating gigs in films like "The Brothers Bloom" and TV series like "Teen Titans Go!" Ricky Jay was a favorite of David Mamet, masterfully executing his iambic pentameter dialogue in films like "House of Games," "The Spanish Prisoner," State and Main," "Redbelt," and "Heist." It's important to note that he did all this while serving for decades as the go-to Hollywood expert on magic, gambling, sleight-of-hand and con games — his one-man shows "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants," "Ricky Jay: On the Stem" and "Ricky Jay: A Rogue's Gallery" played to awestruck crowds, while he served as a consultant on everything from "The Prestige" and "Ocean's Thirteen" to "The Great Buck Howard" and "Sneakers." he also held the Guinness World Record for throwing a playing card at 90 miles per hour, and his card-throwing prowess never failed to impress .

As card-dealer Eddie Sawyer on "Deadwood," he mastered a combination of a charm, shadiness, weakness, and humanity, all traits that made him a good foil for his boss. He also filmed eight episodes of the clever crime drama "Sneaky Pete," playing T.H. Vignetti, making up part of an intriguing arc,  before his death in 2018 . Like all great performers, he left the audience wanting more.

Michael Bowen as Rick Spector

Rick Spector never comes through for his son, Stanley. Instead, he basically uses him as a cash-generating machine and gets angry with him when he doesn't perform as expected. Michael Bowen makes him all too real, and it's a striking performance.

Bowen has made a career partly out of playing despicable-but-memorable characters. He's worked repeatedly with Tarantino, and you may shudder when you remember him as the nurse who sells off access to the Bride's comatose body. If you've blocked those scenes out of your memory, consider another of his patently-despicable bad guy roles: white supremacist gang leader and endgame villain Jack Welker on "Breaking Bad."

Those parts are definitely more spectacularly awful than Rick Spector's bad parenting, but none are as heartbreaking as the moment when Rick ignored his son's request to be kinder to him. Ouch. Even showing up Walter White on the evildoing front didn't hurt quite that much.

Jeremy Blackman as Stanley Spector

Young Jeremy Blackman  was heart-wrenching as Stanley Spector, a prodigy quiz show kid who just wants a little more care and affection from the adults in his life — especially his father, who has no patience with him as anything but a prize money-generating machine.

It's one of the all-time great child acting performances that never translated into a major adult career: Blackman had a handful of roles after "Magnolia," such as a guest-starring spot on "Law and Order," but none of them were remotely as high-profile. 

But you don't have to worry about Blackman who, as it turns out, is just channeling his creativity in a different direction these days. In a 2012 interview with Indie Outlook , Blackman explained that he has changed his career path towards music. He plays five instruments and does some composing, and in college, he and some friends formed the electronic band Pink Drink. You can also find some of his music under the name William Irish.

William H. Macy as Quiz Kid Donnie Smith

William H. Macy played "Quiz Kid" Donnie Smith, a poignant character whose childhood success led to life as an adult prodigy with unfulfilled promise. Over the course of "Magnolia," he loses his job and repeatedly humiliates himself — but he does thankfully end the film on a more hopeful note.

Macy excels at that kind of down-on-his-luck pathos, and after "Magnolia," he went on to give audiences a lot more of it — along with notable performances in films like "Thank You for Smoking" and "Cellular," where he played well against type). As a veteran character actor, he often appears in supporting roles, where he gives every production a considerable boost. 

Macy is known to parents around the globe as the sweet-voiced narrator of the long-running "Curious George" TV series, and to parents who watch Showtime after they put their kids to bed as Frank Gallagher, the foul-mouthed patriarch of "Shameless" (which has afforded him  multiple Emmy nominations and Screen Actors Guild Award wins ). He was nominated for an Oscar for his breakthrough role of Jerry Lundegaard in "Fargo," and should have won many more awards for his masterful work in 2002's "The Cooler," which gave his poor, goodhearted schmuck character a chance to really shine. 

Like his wife and "Magnolia" co-star Felicity Huffman, Macy was implicated in a college admissions scandal , but he was not charged. Come to think of it, the whole admissions scandal feels like something a William H. Macy character would get himself into.

Melinda Dillon as Rose Gator

Melinda Dillon gave a nuanced, quietly devastating performance as Rose Gator, a woman who had to face a horrible truth about her husband.

Dillon had been in the business for decades before "Magnolia," appearing both on screen and in major Broadway productions. With a luminous face tailor-made for close-up reactions, she was an asset wherever she turned up. While "Magnolia" came closer to the end of her career than the beginning, she still had some notable work afterwards that is well-worth checking out. She's a great unexpected bonus in 2007's wistful Adam Sandler movie "Reign Over Me," and played another Rose in the well-regarded indie Western "Cowboy Up." She closed things out with a few guest appearances on the medical drama "Heartland."

Following a long, successful career, she deserves a peaceful, relaxing retirement. Fortunately, she left audiences with a lot of top-notch work to revisit.

Melora Walters as Claudia Wilson Gator

Claudia Wilson Gator was an inherently tragic character, but Melora Walters  lifted her to a whole new level. Playing Claudia as a woman emotionally raw from her past, Walters made her someone deeply damaged, but who still looked for and gravitated towards goodness.

Walters is still doing amazing work. One of her most significant post-"Magnolia" roles is as a recurring cast member on HBO's dark, soapy polygamy drama "Big Love," where she played a woman who frequently used poison as her go-to problem-solving method. She was also a key component in the impressive ensemble indie drama "Short Term 12" (alongside Brie Larson, Rami Malek, Stephanie Beatriz, and others) and currently stars in the Hulu comedy " PEN15 ." 

Philip Baker Hall as Jimmy Gator

Philip Baker Hall gave a hauntingly unforgettable performance in "Magnolia," evoking sympathy for Jimmy Gator's crumbling life even as he revealed him to be a monster deserving of his fate. It's a powerfully emotional performance, one in service of a character as repellant as he is riveting.

Both before and after "Magnolia," Hall continued to go from strength to strength . Another Robert Altman favorite, Hall was in films and TV (including the M*A*S*H series adapted from Altman's film) for two decades before the director collaborated with him on the role that would be his breakthrough: starring as an imperiled, end-of-his-rope Richard Nixon in the astounding one-man-movie "Secret Honor."   

As a character actor, he's done a lot of his best work by taking small, interesting roles and making them remarkable. Some of the best examples include his grizzled and incredulous CIA Director in "Argo," and aging handwriting expert Sherwood Morrill in "Zodiac." He also made a sizable impression in just two guest-starring voice spots on "BoJack Horseman" as Hank Hippopopalous, a man — well, a hippo — not too far from Jimmy Gator or others of his kind, but much smoother and more comfortable with his sins. The dark confidence he injected into his voice made Hank absolutely haunting. This comes as no surprise to anyone who remembers Hall from "Magnolia."

On the verge of celebrating his 90th birthday, Hall is still working — in 2020, he filmed six episodes of the Netflix series "Messiah," and also recently appeared in an episode of the Duplass brothers' HBO anthology "Room 104."

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Phil Parma

Another triple-named acting heavyweight who "Magnolia" unleashed at the full force of his now-mythical acting talents was  Philip Seymour Hoffman , cast as the compassionate, dogged Phil Parma. A nurse determined to get his dying patient the only thing he really wanted, closure with his estranged son, it was a masterful performance that was warm, funny, and deeply human — but then again, that's the only kind Hoffman ever had in him.

Considered by many to be the greatest actor of his generation, "Capote" Oscar winner  Hoffman died at age 46 , leaving behind an impressive legacy of timeless classics including "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "The Big Lebowski," "Moneyball" and "Almost Famous." Perhaps equally as impressive, Hoffman took an out-of-left-field supporting schlub role in the 2004 Ben Stiller vehicle "Along Came Polly" and displayed a scene-stealing flair for humor that could probably have made him a Jack Black-sized star if he had chosen that path instead.

Hoffman was one of those actors who seemed to immediately disappear into a character, whether it was a blockbuster villain (the icy Owen Davian in "Mission: Impossible III"), a vivid supporting character (in "Charlie Wilson's War," "25th Hour," and the "Hunger Games" trilogy, among many others), or a multifaceted, morally-ambiguous lead ("Doubt," and — most iconically — "The Master"). Even in seldom-seen flicks like "The Savages," "Owning Mahoney," "Flawless" and Todd Solondz's masterful "Happiness," Hoffman never gave the viewer anything less than his full heart and soul. 

He was also a foundation of the Paul Thomas Anderson stable, giving stand-out performances in not only "Magnolia" but also "Hard Eight," "Boogie Nights," "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Master." He's still greatly missed, and the amazing body of work he left behind shows why.

Julianne Moore as Linda Partridge

Julianne Moore is a legend, one particularly adept at capturing the passion and brittleness characters like Linda Partridge require. Linda fell in love with her much-older husband just in time to be wracked with guilt over past mistakes, and it makes her an emotionally fragile ticking time bomb throughout much of the movie.

Moore does both intensity and fragility well, and she often combines the two, including in films like 2002's complex period dramas "Far From Heaven" and "The Hours" (2002 was a great year for Moore fans). It's hard to list the highlights of Moore's career, when almost everything feels like a high point, but it's fair to say that her take on Sarah Palin in the HBO movie "Game Change" is legendarily good: She deservedly made a clean sweep of the awards that year , landing recognition and acclaim from multiple organizations. She also finally snagged a Best Actress Oscar in 2015 for her heartbreaking work in "Still Alice," where she played a professor slowly succumbing to Alzheimer's. 

Unsurprisingly, she continues to excel. Recently she appeared in the Stephen King adaptation "Lisey's Story," an excellent miniseries streaming on Apple TV+.

Jason Robards as Earl Partridge

Watching Jason Robards in "Magnolia" now is a bittersweet experience. Robards was fantastic as the fading, regret-laden Earl Partridge, the emotional linchpin of a very complex film (one fan theory is that the entire film is told through his character's point of view, explaining the film's more hallucinatory elements and why the frogs rain when he succumbs to his cancer), and most of that is due to Robards' own immense talent. But his acting here owes a little to special circumstances, as well. Like his character, Robards was dying of cancer. He would pass away  a year after the film's release, in December 2000.

"Magnolia" was his final film, and as a professional athlete might say: he left it all out on the field. Cigarettes & Red Vines, a P.T. Anderson website, has the film's original production notes, including a quote from Robards saying , "It was sort of prophetic that I be asked to play a guy going out in life. It was just so right for me to do this and bring what I know to it." What he brought with him was an invaluable sense of gravitas and sincerity, intangible elements that made his performance in "Magnolia" unforgettable. 

Capping off a brilliant, if sometimes troubled, career that included commanding work in classic films like "All the President's Men," "Once Upon a Time in the West," "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Parenthood," this may rank as one of the all-time great final screen performances.

John C. Reilly as Officer Jim Kurring

John C. Reilly is always good at playing characters like Officer Jim Kurring, ones who may not always be the quickest on the uptake but whose earnest goodness makes him heroic.

After "Magnolia," Reilly went on to an even higher — and Oscar-nominated — profile with movies like "Chicago." He also moved further into comedy: If you haven't seen him in the musician biopic parody "Walk Hard," you're seriously missing out, and "Step Brothers" and "Talladega Nights" are modern comedy classics. He has become a welcome and almost ubiquitous presence, popping up in animated movies, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, critically acclaimed indie films, and TV series. Somewhere between "Magnolia" and "Chicago," Reilly first perfected the simple-and-sweet character, then made it clear it was just one move in a vast repertoire of winding-road talents that would somehow lead the Oscar nominee to Dr. Steve Brule . 

As he said in a 2018 interview with Saturday Evening Post , "I guess I'm sort of a chameleon. I don't really know who I really am. I think I'm sort of a sum of my characters, to tell you the truth. I'm the Special Forces of character actors." 

Tom Cruise as Frank T.J. Mackey

Sleazy pick-up artist guru Frank T.J. Mackey is still remembered as one of Tom Cruise's best performances, channeling all his signature intensity into some strange, dark directions before startling the audience with real, raw emotion by the film's conclusion.

At the time, the role was seen as Oscar bait for Cruise, one of the biggest movie stars in the world but one who did not have an Academy Award on his shelf (21 years later, he still does not). In "Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor," film critic Amy Nicholson reasoned  that the sheer emotional heft of the "Magnolia" role — which hit especially close to home for Cruise — not translating into an Oscar win was perversely freeing for the superstar: "He'd ripped his life open for a tightly crafted, stunningly raw performance. And it still wasn't enough. Cruise was done chasing Oscars — now it was time to have fun."

Since "Magnolia," he's had a lot, most noticeably as the powerhouse behind the  "Mission: Impossible" series . He's done off-the-wall bit parts in films like "Tropic Thunder," he's been the face of inventive standalone blockbusters like "Edge of Tomorrow," and he's been known to jump on a couch every now and then. Between regular "Mission: Impossible" appearances and fan-rewarding projects like the soon-to-release " Top Gun: Maverick ," Cruise's presence is still a strong sign that audiences are about to have a good time at the movies.

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The Question of Ryan Tannehill

magnolia tom cruise netflix

QB1 and the Same?

magnolia tom cruise netflix

Fifteen Years Later: Tom Cruise and ‘Magnolia’

An exclusive excerpt from ‘Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor’

“It’s not just about picking up chicks and sticking your cock in. It’s about finding out what you can be in this world.”

—Frank “T.J.” Mackey

S hooting Eyes Wide Shut in England, Tom Cruise had time to kill. One evening, he and Nicole [Kidman] watched Boogie Nights (1997), the second feature from twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind Paul Thomas Anderson, a writer-director and LA native son who had become the upstart of Hollywood after his first film, Hard Eight (1996), made a splash at Sundance. Cruise was struck by a bungled, drug-addled robbery scene set to “Jessie’s Girl” and called Anderson up with his congratulations. Anderson happened to be in London, and he gladly accepted Cruise’s invitation to visit the Eyes Wide Shut set. Noting [Stanley] Kubrick’s scant film crew, Anderson asked the director if he always worked on such a small scale. “How many do you need?” replied Kubrick. “I’m an asshole, man,” said the humbled young auteur, “I spend too much money.” But he was about to embark on the most star-studded and narratively complex film of his career.

Earlier that year, Anderson’s father, Ernie, had died of cancer. A late-night horror movie host who went by “Ghoulardi,” Mr. Anderson purchased a Betamax video camera for his son when the boy was twelve, launching the director on his path. Cruise understood. He, too, had lost his father early. But in truth he’d lost his dad — and namesake — Thomas Cruise Mapother III years before. After his parents divorced when Cruise was twelve, he’d only seen his father twice: at fifteen when his dad took him to the drive-in and on his deathbed. The elder Mapother never watched one of his son’s films.

“He tried going out to see Risky Business , but he was in too much pain,” said Cruise. In the first leg of his career, he was remarkably open about their relationship, as though the wounds were still so raw that it helped to say them aloud. “I hadn’t seen my father for a number of years. I heard he was dying, and I didn’t know where he was. He didn’t want to be contacted. He left and didn’t want to be contacted for years . I think he was tired of inflicting so much pain on other people that he just had to get away.”

“I spent some time with him. We talked,” he continued. “I think he made so many mistakes that it ate him alive. Even when I went to see him, he didn’t want to discuss what had occurred in the past. I said, ‘Whatever you want, Dad.’ But I held his hand. And I told him I loved him, and that I was going to miss him. He said when he got out of the hospital we’d go have a steak and a beer and talk about it then. He died before we could do that.”

His father did have time to give a few quotes to journalists who tracked him down. In 1983, he told a reporter that he had “made a personal decision to respect my son’s wishes, which was for me to stay the hell out of everything,” saying that they had gone over four years without communication (“a long time, at least to me”) until Tom and his sisters had come by his hospital after a cancer operation. When it was suggested to the elder Mapother that their visit had meant more than words could express, he began to weep. “A lot more, a lot more.”

Given where the two men were at that stage of their lives — Cruise undergoing Kubrick’s emotionally taxing two-year test and Anderson confronting his own father’s death — it’s likely they talked about their shared pasts. The evidence: when Cruise asked Anderson to write a part for him, his standard request when he met a new talent he liked, the filmmaker flew back to Los Angeles and turned up six months later with the part of Frank “T.J.” Mackey, a bitter stage performer who has a wrenching meltdown beside his dying father, Big Earl.

Well, not quite. Anderson’s original script was more sympathetic to Frank and Big Earl than in the final cut. In Anderson’s draft, the pair reconcile with the dad soothing his son: “You are not what you think you are.” But when Cruise played the role, there was no spoken redemption and only a glimpse of Mackey making peace with his pain. The final film is colder, more cutting, and closer to Cruise’s childhood than to Anderson’s bond with his own father — it’s so close, in fact, to Cruise’s own life that both he and Frank Mackey had lopped off their father’s surnames before becoming famous.

Cruise leaped into his three-week stint on Magnolia almost immediately after Kubrick said “Cut.” He was in a rush to squeeze in Mission: Impossible II (2000) that same year — he did, after all, have his own production company to think about, and it’d been starving to get him back on the big screen. Now fifteen years into his career and with an incredible run of five $100 million–plus hits in a row ( Eyes Wide Shut wouldn’t flop until months after Magnolia wrapped), Cruise wielded his clout as a box office titan. He had the muscle to pick the best roles and, having already worked with most of the great directors, the might to invest in Hollywood’s next generation. P. T. Anderson was about to discover what Cameron Crowe had already learned: signing Tom Cruise made you the studio’s best friend and gave your film more money, more time, and more trust.

Still, Anderson was Cruise’s first younger director — a full eight years younger, in fact — and he knew he had to impress. Anderson created Mackey because the complex character was “un-turn-downable.” As he described, his philosophy when writing for actors is, “I want to be a genius to them because their opinions mean so much to me.” Mackey’s emotional arc with his father was in place. Now it was time to figure out the rest of the character. Said Anderson with a grin, “Something about Tom prompted a certain naughtiness in me.” Why not make Cruise a lascivious, woman-hating horndog?

tame_her

Seduce and Destroy     

Audiences who felt let down by the abandoned promise of seeing Cruise as a sex-mad therapist in Eyes Wide Shut — the prevalent preopening rumor — had their dreams fulfilled by Cruise’s first moments as Frank “T.J.” Mackey. Cruise had played lotharios before — in Cocktail , he bedded a woman just to win a bet — but Mackey was a whole new monster. Mackey isn’t just a lover. He’s a wicked psychologist, albeit uncertified, and he’s more interested in inflicting pain than receiving pleasure. Just think of his tagline: “Seduce and Destroy.” Seduce, sure. But destroy ?

Cruise had never been a tabloid Casanova. He’d married Mimi Rogers at twenty-four, then married Nicole Kidman within a year of his first divorce. If anything, he was continually fighting rumors that he didn’t like women enough. He continually headed to court to defend his image. Within one short span, he filed suits against two sex therapists who claimed to have given him and Nicole lovemaking lessons, a tabloid that pronounced him impotent and sterile, a male wrestler who claimed they’d had a romantic affair, and a magazine that announced it had a videotape of the actor in a homosexual tryst. Every case was won by Cruise, settled, or dismissed. If Cruise’s sexuality had a reputation, it was that you spoke about it at your own peril.

The irony of Cruise’s Mackey is that it’s both his most sexual performance and one where he doesn’t even lay a hand on a woman. For all of Mackey’s swagger that he can make any babe his “sex-starved servant,” Anderson never shows the man in action. Anderson and Cruise actually filmed several video reenactments of Mackey bedding women — outtakes from his instructional guide — but cut them from the final product. Even fictionally within the film, we never see Cruise make good on his threat to “master the muffin,” which strengthens the idea that Mackey isn’t the smooth-talker he claims. Is it all bluff? Or does Mackey really believe his own hype?

Cruise is allowed scenes with only two women, and one of them is over the phone. In both, the women control him . His off-screen assistant, Janet, genuinely cares about his well-being. She’s protective of his privacy, peppering his father’s nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman) with questions to prove his credibility, yet also tender when telling Mackey the news about his dying father. But even she — a woman paid to do Mackey’s will — doesn’t take his orders. When Mackey shouts, “Do your fucking job!” she refuses to be cowed. Instead, she hollers back, “I am doing my fucking job!”

Mackey’s centerpiece male-versus-female showdown is another losing battle against television reporter Gwenovier (April Grace), who initially throws him — and us — off guard by acting submissive. Their interview is a teasing, fire-stoking combination where both he and she use flirtation as a tool. He wants to charm her and her camera; she wants to coo and smile until he drops his guard. Their dynamic is the distillation of every stereotype in the battle of the sexes: men using blunt chemistry to exert their power and women pretending to be impressed until they’re ready to wrest control.

Cruise gives the role a fascinating combination of confidence and insecurity. He comes on like a gorilla — literally — stripping down naked in front of Gwenovier and beating his chest. The nudity was Anderson’s idea. Cruise hadn’t flashed his underwear since Risky Business, and hadn’t gone fully nude since All the Right Moves. (The glimpse of his pubic hair has since been edited out of Moves .) On the day of the shoot, Cruise started the scene simply sans shirt, exposure he was used to. Then Anderson asked him to take off his pants. “I said, ‘ What? ’” recalled Cruise. “He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’ll be funny.’” To Anderson’s glee, Cruise disrobed. Gushed the director, “He’s like, ‘What do you want me to do, do you want me to stand on my head, do you want me to do backflips? I’ll do it, I’ll do anything you want.’”

With his manhood a tabloid fixation, all eyes were on his crotch. And the bulge in his briefs was distractingly large. Given Anderson’s previous use of a prosthetic penis in Boogie Nights , the columnist Michael Musto of the Village Voice launched a crusade to find out if “the garden hose is 100 percent real meat.” “I don’t know whether to be insulted or feel complimented,” joked Cruise, while Anderson was more definitive: “Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world. Are you kidding? Of course he’s got the world’s biggest cock.” (Naturally, Cruise looked into a lawsuit against Musto.)

In just three minutes, the opening act of the interview establishes, then upends, Mackey and Gwenovier’s dynamic. Cruise starts the scene in full physical command. Defiantly pants-less, he rolls into a backflip — as Anderson asked — caps it with a strikingly graceful handstand, bounds into a chair, and starts panting like a dog in heat while blurting out nonsense: “Terrorists! Babes! Beauties!” Meanwhile, Gwenovier sits immobile with her back to the camera waiting for him to settle down. When Anderson finally cuts from Mackey’s face to hers, we realize that this woman isn’t under his spell — though he’s certain she is.

Suddenly, Mackey’s frantic ego-thumping seems naïve. Whether we’re excited or anxious to see her dismantle him depends on how much Cruise has made us empathize against our will with this sad, show-off child. To hint at Mackey’s eagerness to impress, Cruise exaggerates his movements, leaning so far forward in his chair that his skeleton looks apt to pop out of his skin. In response, Gwenovier purrs, “Calm down, take it easy, and be a good boy.” She talks to him like a naughty little child, and he cheerfully responds. “Yes, ma’am!” he chirps, buttoning his shirt as though he expects her to be proud of his fingers for moving so fast. Mackey mistakes her interest for flirting — which, in fairness, is probably part of her plan. Uncharmed, she subtly asserts her control by telling him that he missed a button.

Mackey’s immature need to impress isn’t written in the script, but it’s there between the lines. Like Cruise’s, Mackey’s father abandoned the family when he was a child. Like Cruise’s, Mackey’s father never called. Unlike Cruise, Mackey had to watch his mother die of cancer by his fourteenth birthday. He’s never grown past the pain — and in fact, underneath his adult braggadocio, Cruise clues us in that he’s never grown up at all. Playing Mackey with a teenager’s horny obedience speaks to his suspended adolescence — you see in him the age at which his maturity stopped. By giving us a glimpse of the broken boy inside, Cruise makes it impossible to hate Mackey, despite his unconscionable attitudes toward women. Wouldn’t let the rogue near our own daughters, but we believe that he, too, needs love — despite claiming he only cares about lust.

Cruise’s vulnerability is key to making Magnolia work. Without it, his sobbing scene at his dad’s deathbed would fill us with schadenfreude , not sadness. It also explains why with Gwenovier he’s determined to hide the truth of his origins lest she and her audience learn his secret pain. To assert Mackey’s feigned authority over Gwenovier — especially when her interview gets too personal — Cruise keeps his dialogue clipped and sharp, as though withholding his charm were punishment for her intrusiveness. He cuts off her questions by insisting that they’re a waste of her time and tries to shut her down with his restless disinterest — or, failing that, derail her with sexual innuendos. But look closely and Cruise transmits Mackey’s fear: his crow’s-feet quiver, he bites his lips, he nods overzealously, he glances over his shoulder at his assistant for backup. Gwenovier also sees through — or ignores — his alarm. Despite his lingering, clueless confidence that he can maintain control of the conversation, their interplay is like a river overpowering a dam: she gently flows past his obstructions.

Edit out the rest of Magnolia to allow the interview scene to play in real time, and the shift in Cruise is even more obvious. Just minutes after his exuberant backflips, her questions have hemmed him in so tightly that he can barely move. When he realizes Gwenovier already knows the truth about his childhood, Cruise takes us through an arc of angry resignation while barely appearing to react at all — Mackey wouldn’t want to give this woman the satisfaction. He doesn’t even blink. All he’ll allow is a change in his mouth, gradually collapsing from a grin to a forced smile to a pursed frown, which he holds, as stony as a sphinx. (“There are a lot of silent parts because I’ve always loved Tom Cruise silent,” said Anderson. “He’s a really good starer.’’) He won’t move, so Anderson does, pushing the camera so close to his face that we can see through his cold control — close enough to see him grinding his teeth. Without lifting a hand, Cruise creates a crackling air of violence. He doesn’t even raise his voice — in fact, his voice gets quieter and more controlled — but his silent fury triples the tension. In the climax, all Cruise has to do is stand, loom over the still-seated Gwenovier, and calmly call her a bitch, and she recoils like she’s been hit.

How to Fake Like You Are Nice and Caring

Anderson plays with Cruise’s physical proportions throughout Magnolia . When first we see him onstage, as “Thus Spake Zarathustra” (a nod to his time with Kubrick?) rises on the sound track, we see him as Mackey wants to be seen: back-lit and poised like Superman. In theaters, the shot makes him appear both life-size and larger than life. In front of his champions, Mackey is a rock star — literally. Watch closely and Mackey’s performance is Cruise’s sharklike impersonation of Elvis Presley. Cruise doesn’t walk, he swaggers — and curls his upper lip in a sexy snarl. Though Mackey was born and raised in Southern California, Cruise gives him a Mississippi twang. He doesn’t say “Men!” or “No!” he says, “Men- naaa !” and “Noooo- aaaa !” and when really overheated drawls the word “sausage” out to three sweaty syllables, as in “Suck my big fat fucking saw-seg- geah !” (Did Cruise cut the original script line, “By the end of May, you will know I’m not gay,” because it cut too close to the rumors?) When he mimes humping a girl, his pelvis swivels dangerously enough to get him brought up on obscenity charges in Los Angeles — something that nearly happened to Elvis in 1957 when the Vice Squad accused him of getting too provocative with a stuffed animal while crooning “Hound Dog.”

Cruise is a big Elvis fan — he’s sung Elvis publicly on Jay Leno, privately in a karaoke session with the prime minister of Japan, and even snuck an Elvis bobblehead on the dashboard of his Bubble Ship in Oblivion (2013). In Magnolia , he’s bold about the Mackey/Presley connection, continually poaching Elvis’s windmilling arm swing to rally his crowd. (His swagger barely changed when Cruise played actual rock star Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages [2012], though instead of drowning in hate, he’s drowning in drugs.) The crowd hoots and hollers like they’re at a concert. Mackey isn’t giving a motivational speech, he’s giving a motivational performance.

And it’s all Cruise. Anderson thought T.J. Mackey was a nerd. He first wanted to dress Mackey in golf pants and polo shirts. Cruise asked him to reconsider. “I always saw him wearing an armband,” he insisted to Anderson, “those leather-wrist, masculine hero kind of things.” Cruise pointed to the script for backup: Mackey likens himself to a mythic figure, a modern day Batman and Superman. “I was just on it with the character,” said Cruise. “And Paul trusted that.” Convinced, Anderson allowed Cruise to transform the character from a cruel geek to a strutting, vest-wearing rock star. He’s even visibly vain — when the spotlights hit Mackey’s face, they highlight lavender circles of makeup under his eyes.

The golf pants had come from T.J. Mackey’s real-world inspiration: seduction Svengali Ross Jeffries, a former paralegal. (Which might be why men trusted him — in reality, wouldn’t Mackey’s paying fans wonder if his pickup secret was, well, looking like Tom Cruise?) Jeffries’s seminar series launched the pickup artist into the popular culture, and he took a trademark attorney along to Magnolia in case he had a lawsuit. “He lifted some stuff almost word for word,” Jeffries complained, but ultimately decided he liked the film so much he wouldn’t sue. (Not that he had much of a case.)

“What Tom Cruise doesn’t know is that he was playing a character that I created,” explained Jeffries. “I’m not Ross Jeffries — that’s a persona I put on in my seminars.” But Jeffries underestimates Cruise’s intelligent reading of T.J. Mackey. Cruise knew that Mackey knew his act is artificial. His smooth moves have the practiced look of a performer who’s done them hundreds of times in a hundred different hotel convention centers. Mackey is a self-made construct who comes to life only under the spotlight. Who naturally strides around with their arms akimbo and fists clenched to their hips? Underscoring Mackey’s control over his artificial persona, after the one-two disasters of his interview with Gwenovier and the news of [his] father’s imminent death, Cruise shows us how he switches back into character onstage as easily as putting on a mask.

However, during his final lecture (“How to fake like you are nice and caring” — ironic, as Mackey really fakes being a jerk), it’s hard to tell if — or when — Mackey strays off script. “Men are shit!” he yells, “We do horrible, heinous, terrible things!” That sounds like Mackey, but Cruise’s movements get crisper and angrier until the film audience alone — his in-person audience never suspects — spot the seething hate and pain. Cruise’s jaw twitches, his voice builds, and when he yells, “I will not apologize for who I am,” Cruise makes it deliberately hard to tell if he’s talking to the crowd or himself. Mackey claims he can control a woman’s mind, but can he even control his own emotions?

Cruise and Anderson couldn’t figure out how to cap his mini-meltdown. “We had tried ending the scene a couple of different ways,” said Cruise. With Anderson and the crew watching, the actor paced as he tried to seize upon an idea. “I went over [to] the table on stage for a second, it was in the take, just at the end of it, and I just really wanted to throw the table,” recalled Cruise. “I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t really make a huge move to it, but he came up to me right afterward, and he just walked over to the table and put his hand on it and sort of tapped it a little bit as if to say, ‘It’s okay, let’s do it.’” But the masterstroke is that flipping the table doesn’t end the scene. Instead, Cruise has Mackey immediately wrenching control of himself to snap back into his own character, ordering the crowd to open their white books before they clue into the emotions churning underneath his smooth surface.

Fathers and Sons

Cruise has played Mackey loud and he’s played Mackey quiet. But he doesn’t show us the real Mackey until he visits his dying father, played by Jason Robards. Again, Cruise added his own input to the original text and convinced Anderson to cut back on the sentiment. “In the script, it said, ‘He gets to the door and he breaks down,’” noted Cruise. “And I said, ‘Look, I don’t feel that.’” Instead, when he gets to his parents’ house, Cruise can’t even be seen — he’s fully blocked by the door itself. The audience hears only his voice as he falls back on the trick he tried on Gwenovier: gaining control by demanding obedience. “I want you to come in with me, and I want you to stay away from me,” he orders his father’s nurse, warning that he’ll drop-kick the dogs if they come too close. (“I was looking for a way to make this guy human,” joked Cruise. “I thought it was funny that he was afraid of dogs.”)

“I didn’t know what was going to happen when I got to the house,” admitted Cruise. Was Mackey going to rage against his father, or crumple like a child? He does both. In a bravura single-take shot with Robards supine at the front of the frame and Hoffman, small and out of focus, watching from behind, Cruise enters the scene and stalks up to his father with exaggerated cheer. He reverts into his offensive position — the hands-on-hips macho stage pose — but Cruise lets his nerves slip: he’s breathing too heavy, baring his teeth, and tapping his foot loudly just out of frame. Then the hurt rolls in like a fog. Cruise puts his superhuman body control to work. His lips purse; he shakes imperceptibly and clasps his hands together so hard that the knuckles turn white. Just as he vows, “I am not going to cry,” Cruise tilts his head to the ceiling, perfectly placed so the light catches a tear seconds before it spills across his face. As he collapses into sobs, a vein pops in his forehead, his face turns painfully red, and by the time he hollers, “Don’t go away, you fucking asshole!” Cruise is heaving like a hurt animal. The whole arc happens in just under two minutes, and it’s arguably the best two minutes of acting in Cruise’s career.

“The whole time with the character, I was skating on the edge,” acknowledged Cruise. The personal parallels between him and Mackey were closer than he cared to admit. In a strikingly candid 1992 interview with GQ , Cruise described his final moments with his father and presaged the same struggles Mackey would face seven years later. “When people can’t forgive someone, my question always is, ‘What have you done in your life that you can’t forgive this other person?’” asked Cruise. “The things you’ve got to take responsibility for in your life, it makes forgiveness quite easy. And it also brought me a lot of understanding about him and the pain he was in.”

But by the time Magnolia earned him his third Academy Award nomination, Cruise had clammed up about his father. Back on the awards circuit, and this time all but certain that the Oscar was his, he wanted to build protective distance between himself and the script. And why risk voters thinking he wasn’t really “acting”?

Again, Cruise lost. He’d ripped his life open for a tightly crafted, stunningly raw performance. And it still wasn’t enough. Cruise was done chasing Oscars — now it was time to have fun.  

Amy Nicholson ( @TheAmyNicholson ) is the chief film critic for LA Weekly and author of   Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor .

Illustration by Alex Robbins.

Filed Under: Movies , Tom Cruise , Paul Thomas anderson , Magnolia , Nicole Kidman , Stanley Kubrick , Tom Cruise Week

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Tom Cruise is Making a Deal to Star in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Next Film

Cruise has been actively seeking the chance to return to the sort of auteur-driven work that saw him score an Oscar nomination for 1999’s ‘Magnolia’.

(Left) Tom Cruise attends the Abu Dhabi Red Carpet and Premiere of 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One' presented by Paramount Pictures and Skydance at Emirates Palace Hotel on June 26, 2023, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Darren Arthur/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures. (Right) Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of the Oscar-nominated film 'Biutiful' in the Foreign Language Film Award category for the 83rd Academy Awards attends a reception in the Grand Lobby of the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, CA on Friday, February 25, 2011. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, CA. Credit/Provider: Matt Petit/©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.

(Left) Tom Cruise attends the Abu Dhabi Red Carpet and Premiere of 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One' presented by Paramount Pictures and Skydance at Emirates Palace Hotel on June 26, 2023, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Photo by Darren Arthur/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures. (Right) Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of the Oscar-nominated film 'Biutiful' in the Foreign Language Film Award category for the 83rd Academy Awards attends a reception in the Grand Lobby of the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, CA on Friday, February 25, 2011. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, CA. Credit/Provider: Matt Petit/©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.

  • Tom Cruise has found a potential next movie.
  • He’s making a deal to appear in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new, untitled film.
  • It’s all part of his deal with Warner Bros.

Tom Cruise has certainly done well for himself in big franchises such as ‘ Mission: Impossible ’ and ‘ Top Gun ’, where he spends his time doing daring deeds.

But at the age of 61 –– and while he’s not planning to slow down exactly, even he’s beginning to think he might want to try something else.

And in this case, “something else” is getting back to working with drama-focused directors whose budgets don’t include the GDP of a small European country. Something, in fact, more like Paul Thomas Anderson ’s 1999 film ‘ Magnolia ’, for which Cruise scored a richly deserved Oscar nomination.

According to Deadline , Cruise is now making a deal to star in the next film from ‘ The Revenant ’ and ‘ Birdman ’ director Alejandro G. Iñárritu , a man with no little experience of Oscars .

Related Article: 35 Best Tom Cruise Movies of All Time!

Alejandro g. iñárritu: a primer.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu accepts the Oscar® for Achievement in directing, for work on 'The Revenant' during the live ABC Telecast of The 88th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 28, 2016.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu accepts the Oscar® for Achievement in directing, for work on 'The Revenant' during the live ABC Telecast of The 88th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 28, 2016. Credit/Provider: Aaron Poole / ©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: Scott Diussa.

In case you’re not sure who we’re talking about, the Mexican filmmaker has enjoyed successful career making unique, thoughtful dramas.

His most successful run was between 2010-2015, when he directed ‘ Biutiful ’, ‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’ and survival drama ‘The Revenant’, the latter two scoring him back-to-back Best Director Oscars (‘The Revenant’ scored a clutch of awards, including one for star Leonardo DiCaprio ).

After some time away from filmmaking (though he did shoot some commercials), he returned in 2022 for Netflix movie ‘ Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths ’.

What is Iñárritu’s new movie about?

Alejandro G. Iñárritu poses backstage with the Oscar® for Original screenplay, for work on “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” during the live ABC Telecast of The 87th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 22, 2015.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu poses backstage with the Oscar® for Original screenplay, for work on “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” during the live ABC Telecast of The 87th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 22, 2015. Credit/Provider: Aaron Poole / ©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.

That’s the big question right now –– the director has not revealed any plot details and all Deadline’s report was able to discover was his co-writers: Sabina Berman, as well as ‘Birdman’ colleagues Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone.

Cruise reportedly took a meeting with the director about potentially working together recently and had essentially agreed to star in and produce the new movie. We’ll see whether he makes it his next film, or if he squeezes in another from his list of potentials, including the movie Doug Liman is planning to film in space.

Warner Bros., which signed a big deal to have Cruise work on some of its movies, is looking to acquire the rights to the new film alongside regular co-production company Legendary.

What of Quentin Tarantino?

Quentin Tarantino accepts the Oscar® for original screenplay for “Django Unchained” during the live ABC Telecast of The Oscars® from the Dolby® Theatre, in Hollywood, CA, Sunday, February 24, 2013.

Quentin Tarantino accepts the Oscar® for original screenplay for “Django Unchained” during the live ABC Telecast of The Oscars® from the Dolby® Theatre, in Hollywood, CA, Sunday, February 24, 2013.

Talking of auteurs, recent chatter suggested that Cruise had been looking to work with Quentin Tarantino on his next (and according to the director, final) film, ‘ The Movie Critic ’.

With word of the new deal, it seems Cruise has made his choice, though we suppose there’s always a chance he could be entering a new stage in his career, and he’ll only work on movies with a cost roughly equal to the catering budget for his blockbusters –– but don’t hold your breath. Unless you’re Tom Cruise, and you can hold your breath for a long time…

Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in 'Top Gun: Maverick'

Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in 'Top Gun: Maverick' from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.

OtherAlejandro G. Iñárritu Movies:

  • ' Amores Perros ' (2001)
  • ' 21 Grams ' (2003)
  • ' Babel ' (2006)
  • ' Biutiful ' (2010)
  • ' Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) ' (2014)
  • ' The Revenant ' (2015)
  • ' BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths ' (2022)

Buy Alejandro G. Iñárritu Movies on Amazon

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Rian Johnson says Edward Norton surprised him on set by dressing like Tom Cruise from 'Magnolia' for a key scene in 'Glass Onion'

  • Warning: Spoiler below if you haven't seen "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."
  • Edward Norton shocked Rian Johnson by dressing like Tom Cruise from "Magnolia" for one scene.
  • "I started cracking up. But then I thought, 'Is this too much?'" Johnson told Insider.

Insider Today

You aren't seeing things, Edward Norton really dressed like Tom Cruise from "Magnolia" in his new movie "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."

And director Rian Johnson had no idea the actor was going to do it.

Norton's hat tip to Cruise's macho motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey in the 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson movie occurs in the middle of the new Benoit Blanc whodunit.

During a flashback scene in which Norton's character Miles Bron is first introduced to best friends played by Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, and Dave Bautista, Bron shows up at the Glass Onion bar wearing long hair, a black leather vest over a velvet shirt with the top buttons undone.

This is the exact look Cruise wore to play the Mackey character in "Magnolia."

"He and Jenny Eagan, our costume designer, came up with the look and I had no idea," Johnson told Insider . "I started cracking up. But then I thought, 'Is this too much?' I also thought, 'What is Paul going to think of this?' Hopefully he takes it in the right spirit."

The wardrobe choice was in no way a knock on Anderson or his movie, but a subtle indication that Norton's Bron character lacks any original ideas. Even when it comes down to the clothes he wears, he can't help but steal someone's look.

Norton's choice was just one example of how Johnson and the cast had fun on the set of "Glass Onion."

Shot in Greece as the COVID-19 Delta variant spread wild around the world, Johnson's longtime producer Ram Bergman recalled another way they all had a good time without the fear of contracting the virus.

"Rian basically every weekend did a murder-mystery night," Bergman told Insider. "We would rent out a bar and then they can have fun together."

But all that fun on set can come with a price. Bergman jokingly pointed out the wasted cost for on-set trailers for the stars that were never used in both "Knives Out" and "Glass Onion."

"Every star had to have their own trailer and I thought the actors were never going to go to their trailers, I guaranteed it, they'll want to hang with each other and that's what happened on both movies," he said. "I lost millions of dollars for all the trailers because they never went in them, but it starts from the top with Rian, everyone gets along so well."

"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" is currently available on Netflix.

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Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is one of the purest pop pleasures of the year

This article was published more than 1 year ago. Some information may no longer be current.

GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2022) Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc.  Cr: Courtesy NETFLIX

Daniel Craig returns as detective Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. John Wilson/Courtesy of Netflix

  • Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
  • Written and directed by Rian Johnson
  • Starring Daniel Craig, Janelle Monae and Edward Norton
  • Classification PG; 139 minutes
  • Opens in select theatres Nov. 23; streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 23

Critic’s Pick

Perhaps I’m partly to blame, or maybe thank. When writer-director Rian Johnson’s first Knives Out movie came out in 2019 , I singled out Daniel Craig’s wonderfully loopy performance as ace detective Benoit Blanc by sentencing the British actor to a lifetime of performing solely with the molasses-thick, Deep-South accent that he drawls in the film. I didn’t realize at the time that this was Johnson’s plan all along. Three years later, we have a new Benoit Blanc adventure to enjoy, with the explicit promise from Johnson that audiences will get an indefinite supply of drawlin’ Daniel whodunits for years to come, should the sequel deliver the goods.

And deliver the goods Glass Onion does – this new Knives Out mystery is one of the purest pop pleasures of the season, the kind of irresistible crowd-pleaser that balances its franchise obligations with a clear sense of wit and creative purpose. It also might be the fourth-best thing that Netflix has ever financed, after The Irishman , Roma and Uncut Gems , respectively. All due credit to Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars that his company threw at Johnson to make it happen. The next big mystery for Benoit Blanc to solve, then: Just how much of Netflix’s Knives Out 2 budget resulted in my subscription price being hiked earlier this year? We may never know. But at least the case in Glass Onion is comparatively easier to solve.

GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (2022) Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc.  Cr: Courtesy NETFLIX

Glass Onion delivers the kind of irresistible crowd-pleaser that balances its franchise obligations with a clear sense of wit and creative purpose. Courtesy of Netflix

Summoned to a luxe Greek island by an Elon Musk-esque tycoon named Miles Bron (Edward Norton), Blanc must figure out who among his new client’s coterie of high-flying friends is guilty of cold-blooded murder. Is it the obnoxious Joe Rogan-like podcast host Duke Cody (Dave Bautista)? The AOC-meets-Nancy Pelosi politico Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn)? The Steve Wozniak-ish scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.)? Or the Kate Hudson-y actor Birdie Jay played by … Kate Hudson? The only suspect who doesn’t fit into an easy celebrity facsimile is the soft-spoken entrepreneur Andi Brand (Janelle Monae), who also happens to be Miles’s ex – and is carrying to the island enough physical and emotional baggage to fill Bron’s titular, Beatles-inspired glass mansion.

Johnson, an old hand by now at the detective game thanks to not only the first Knives Out but also the high-school noir Brick and the con-artist caper The Brothers Bloom , digs deep into the history of the whodunnit to refashion the genre into a cinematic pretzel of twists and triple-takes. Just when you think that you have figured out which rug will next be pulled out from under you, Johnson reveals that there are rugs woven inside rugs woven inside even tinier rugs – and that the floor beneath those many carpets isn’t actually a floor at all, but a ceiling.

I’ll admit that, when initially announced, Glass Onion ’s cast list underwhelmed. The first Knives Out had a murderer’s row of murderers, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Don Johnson. Oh, and Christopher Plummer. And LaKeith Stanfield. And more? Probably more. Yet everyone in Glass Onion is here for a deliciously perfect reason.

magnolia tom cruise netflix

While the first Knives Out had a murderer’s row of murderers, the supporting cast in Glass Onion fit their roles perfectly. Courtesy of Netflix

Bautista lays into his red-pilled fool with a muscular zeal that showcases the bruiser’s natural talent for deadpan. Monae balances very tricky narrative responsibilities with slick ease. Norton fuses his notoriously prickly public persona with a slime-ball tech-bro charm to create a hiss-worthy dolt (he also at one point dresses exactly like Tom Cruise’s character in Magnolia , so extra bonus points). Hudson, the film’s surprise MVP, hasn’t been so charming and sharp since her breakthrough in Almost Famous two decades ago. (Is the actor in fact better here than as Cameron Crowe’s Penny Lane? I’m here to heretically argue … maybe!)

Backing everyone up, meanwhile, is Craig, who delivers the film’s many craned necks and raised eyebrows with an effortless finesse. If the actor plays his cards right, Benoit Blanc just might be the headline – and James Bond the footnote – in the actor’s eventual obituary.

Like even the most seemingly perfect crime, though, there are hitches and catches. A flood of early film cameos sells too hard the idea that this is Hollywood’s favourite new franchise. The first act involves a decent amount of COVID-19 talk, which briefly deflates the film’s escapist charms – and when Johnson decides he’s had enough pandemic talk, the problem is magically quashed. There are also several shots that seem designed mostly to be screen-captured and meme-ified on Twitter (maybe Elon caught wind of this, and his current corporate escapades are simply pre-emptive strikes against Johnson). But once the whole bloody affair is sorted, these cutely annoying issues hardly matter.

Is this the home run – an all-audience- and critic-friendly hit – that Netflix has been waiting for? Not quite, as half the fun of Glass Onion is watching the film’s many layers peel away while in the company of a raucous crowd. Every plot pivot and sight gag works to drive a full house into an infectious state of “aha!” agitation. It is anyone’s guess how the action will play out in the cold comfort of a Netflix subscriber’s home.

But I have faith in Johnson’s ability to crack cases previously thought uncrackable. May Daniel Craig never speak in his native tongue again.

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Top 23 Best Tom Cruise Movies On Netflix In 2024 [Ranked]

Emilia Harper

Tom Cruise is an American actor-producer and one of the world's highest-paid actors. He's a recipient of several accolades that include Golden Globes and an Honorary Palme d'Or. Cruise's films are said to have grossed over $11.5 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing stars of all time!

Tom started his acting career in the 1980s, with the breakthrough comedy film Risky Business and action flick Top Gun. This was followed by The Colour of Money and Rain Man. Over time, Cruise has managed to establish himself as an action star, often choosing to perform his stunts himself.

If you're looking to learn more about the actor Tom Cruise and have a look at some of his greatest works available on Netflix, check out the list we have curated below.

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Top 33 Best Comedy Drama Movies On Netflix In 2023 [Ranked]

1. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

The success of Mission: Impossible - Fallout at the box office is a testament to its brilliance. With a budget of $178,000,000 and $791,657,398 gross, this movie is a must-see for all movie lovers.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie and featuring an incredible cast led by Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, and Ving Rhames, it is no surprise that it was so well-received by audiences.

IMP agent Hunt is joined by a special agent, Walker, to locate an extremist named Lark, who is planning to construct nuclear bombs through plutonium cores. Hunt poses as Lark to get the cores but gets interrupted; his impersonating lands him in trouble with IMF implicating Hunt as Lark.

With Hunt's personal life thrown into the mix, he has little time to stop the attack while trying to deduce the complications of the bomb.

Available Countries: Germany, France, Italy, India, and Japan

Top 100 Best Thriller Movies On Netflix In 2023 [Ranked]

2. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Looking for a movie to watch? Top Gun: Maverick could be a good option. With a runtime of 2 hours and 10 min and released in 2022, it stars Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller and was directed by Joseph Kosinski.

Picking up 30 years after the original storyline, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell proves he is still one of the best naval aviators in the U. S. Airforce. His past returns to haunt him in the form of Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, son of the man with whom Maverick once flew but couldn't save.

The elite flight school "Top Gun" has a new set of graduates, and Maverick is called in to advise and teach them on a mission of international significance.

Available Countries: Canada, Australia, Italy, India, and Japan

Top 11 Best Nc 17 Movies On Netflix In 2023 [Ranked]

3. Jerry Maguire (1996)

Jerry Maguire (1996)

The success of Jerry Maguire at the box office is a testament to its brilliance. With a budget of $50,000,000 and $273,552,592 gross, this movie is a must-see for all movie lovers.

Directed by Cameron Crowe and featuring an incredible cast led by Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Renée Zellweger, it is no surprise that it was so well-received by audiences.

Meet Jerry Maguire, a successful sports agent at Sports Management International, who has an epiphany about the dishonesty in his industry and decides to start his own agency. After being fired by SMI, Jerry faces off against his former protégé Bob Sugar to keep his clients, including Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell, who demands a $10 million contract.

With only one client left, Jerry puts all his efforts into Rod, while also falling in love with single mother Dorothy Boyd. As Jerry struggles to balance his personal and professional life, he must prove his worth as an agent to Rod and secure his future in the NFL.

Available Countries: Italy, and Switzerland

Is La Strada On Netflix?

4. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Helmed for the screen by Doug Liman, Edge of Tomorrow is an action-adventure that hit the screens in 2014.

Its crew members include Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth (screenplay), Dion Beebe (cinematography), and Kate Hawley (costume), among others. The full-length feature was able to amass over $370,541,256 at the box office and received Annie Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards.

An alien attack on Earth sees them go from one relentless assault to the other. The UDF decides to enlist the services of Maj. William Cage, but he gets killed within minutes.

However, he now finds himself thrown into a time loop that forces him to relive the brutal combat. With each face-off, he can engage better with the enemy using increased skill, along with Sergeant Rita Vrataski.

As they take on the aliens, each repeated assault helps them inch closer to defeating the adversary.

Available Countries: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and New Zealand

Is Donnie Brasco On Netflix?

5. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Bankrolled by Paramount Pictures, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is an action-adventure starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, and Jeremy Renner in prominent roles.

Helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, the motion picture became a box-office success as it amassed $195,042,377 in the United States of America and Canada. Its worldwide total was $682,716,636 against a production budget of $150,000,000.

When Ethan Hunt manages to prevent a cargo plane from transporting nerve gas to terrorists, he is captured by the rogue organisation, Syndicate. Meanwhile, Washington D. C. CIA director Alan Hunley, suspicious of the Syndicate's existence, convinces the Senate to disband and assimilate the IMF, as it is without a secretary.

After Hunt manages to escape the clutches of the Syndicate, he learns of the IMF's shutdown. Hunt decides to embark on one of the most difficult operations ever; eradicating the Syndicate.

Available Countries: Australia, India, and Japan

6. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is an action-adventure which has been helmed for the screen by Brad Bird.

Toplined by actors such as Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, and Simon Pegg (main characters), the film was released in 2011 with a runtime of 2 hours and 12 min.

IMF Ethan Hunt is asked to infiltrate the Kremlin to find intel on Cobalt. Meanwhile, there's a blast in the Kremlin, for which the IMF is blamed leading the President to disavow the organisation and activate Ghost Protocol.

Hunt and his team soon learn that Cobalt is nuclear strategist Kurt Hendricks and the one responsible for the bombing and he's seeking a nuclear war between U. S. and Russia.

Hunt will have to find a way to get to Hendricks, clear the name of IMF, and also stop a catastrophe from happening.

Available Countries: India, and Japan

7. Collateral (2004)

Collateral (2004)

Looking for a movie to watch? Collateral could be a good option. With a runtime of 2 hours and released in 2004, it stars Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith and was directed by Michael Mann.

Max Durocher, a meticulous Los Angeles cab driver, reluctantly agrees to a night of fare dodging with hitman Vincent in exchange for $600. But when a corpse falls onto his car, Max is thrust into a world of crime, danger, and death.

As Vincent forces Max to hide the body in the trunk and continue driving, LAPD undercover narcotics detective Ray Fanning is hot on their trail. With Vincent's final target being federal prosecutor Annie Farrell, Max must risk everything to save her and bring Vincent down.

Will he succeed, or will Vincent's nihilistic beliefs prevail?

Available Countries: France, Italy, India, Denmark, and Finland

8. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Todd Field in the lead, Eyes Wide Shut is a drama-mystery movie that was released in 1999. It comprises a talented team of crew members Stanley Kubrick (director), Stanley Kubrick, and Frederic Raphael (screenplay), Larry Smith (cinematography), and others.

The motion picture received a score of 7.5 on IMDb, while it received 69 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Dr Bill, his wife, Alice, and their seven-year-old daughter are from an upper-middle-class family. After an annual Christmas party, Alice strikes up a conversation with Bill regarding their sex life and, in particular, their sexual encounters outside marriage.

After talking about their fantasies, Bill finds himself seeking different opportunities. He learns from his friend about a private, invite-only sex party which Bill somehow manages to infiltrate. However, the events leading from there arrive to unexpected consequences.

9. War of the Worlds (2005)

War of the Worlds (2005)

War of the Worlds premiered in theatres in 2005. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this movie features Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, and Tim Robbins in the lead. If you have a particular liking for action-adventure movies, then you can try this title.

War of the Worlds received a score of 6.5 on IMDb and 73 on Metacritic.

Ray Ferrier is a longshoreman who works as a crane operator in Brooklyn, New York. He's divorced and shares an estranged relationship with his two children. After his ex-wife drops their two children at his place and leaves, there's a strange storm that brews nearby, causing multiple lightning strikes to hit his neighbourhood.

Soon he notices massive tripods have emerged as a part of a huge alien invasion on Earth. With the aliens trying to ensure the total annihilation of humanity, Ray must find a way to save his children and become their protector.

Available Countries: United States

10. American Made (2017)

American Made (2017)

Featuring Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, and Sarah Wright in the lead, American Made is an action-comedy movie that was released in 2017. It comprises a talented team of crew members Doug Liman (director), Gary Spinelli (screenplay), César Charlone (cinematography), and others.

The motion picture received a score of 7.1 on IMDb, while it received 65 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Baton Rouge pilot Barry Seal flies commercial jets for TWA and also smuggles Cuban cigars into the country via Canada. He is recruited by a CIA case officer to fly clandestine reconnaissance missions for the CIA over Central America. Soon after, Seal is also asked to act as a courier between the CIA and General Noriega in Panama.

During a mission, he is picked by the Medellín Cartel and asked to fly cocaine on his return flights in the USA. While the CIA decides to turn a blind eye to drug smuggling, the DEA begins to track Seal.

Available Countries: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, and Italy

11. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Mission: Impossible III premiered in theatres in 2006. Directed by J.J. Abrams, this movie features Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, and Ving Rhames in the lead. If you have a particular liking for action-adventure movies, then you can try this title.

Mission: Impossible III received a score of 6.9 on IMDb and 66 on Metacritic.

Ethan Hunt has retired from fieldwork in the IMF and now trains recruits while planning on settling down with his fiancee Julia, who's unaware of what is his real job.

Hunt is approached by IMG Director of Operations John Musgrave to rescue one of his proteges; Lindsey Farris, who was captured while investigating notorious arms dealer Owen Davian. However, Davian is out to obtain a mysterious object called 'Rabbit's Foot' and with Hunt coming in his way, he'll ensure Hunt pays a heavy price.

Available Countries: United States, India, and Japan

12. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles is a drama-fantasy which has been helmed for the screen by Neil Jordan.

Toplined by actors such as Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Antonio Banderas (main characters), the film was released in 1994 with a runtime of 2 hours and 3 min.

In modern-day San Francisco, a journalist named Daniel Molloy is given the opportunity of a lifetime when he is granted an exclusive interview with Louis de Pointe du Lac, a mysterious figure who claims to be a vampire.

As Louis recounts his past life as a wealthy plantation owner in 18th-century Louisiana, he tells a tale of love, loss, and immortality that spans centuries and continents. From his fateful encounter with the charismatic vampire Lestat to his doomed relationship with the child vampire Claudia, Louis's story is one of a man struggling to reconcile his own humanity with the monstrous nature of his existence.

Available Countries: Australia, and Japan

13. The Last Samurai (2003)

The Last Samurai (2003)

Helmed for the screen by Edward Zwick, The Last Samurai is an action-drama that hit the screens in 2003.

Its crew members include John Logan, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz (screenplay), John Toll (cinematography), and Ngila Dickson (costume), among others. The full-length feature was able to amass over $454,627,263 at the box office and received AFI Awards, USA, All Def Movie Awards, and ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards.

The Emperor of Japan reaches out to a civil war veteran, cynical captain Nathan Algren, to train Japan's first army in the art of modern warfare. The Imperial's cabinet is seeking to wipe away the ancient Samurai warriors and seek to prepare a new batch of fighters equipped with western fighting knowledge and adhere to trade-friendly policies.

Algren, however, gets impressed by Samurais during their encounters and now finds himself stuck in the middle of old school and modernity.

Available Countries: Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and Switzerland

14. Mission: Impossible (1996)

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Bankrolled by Paramount Pictures, Mission: Impossible is an action-adventure starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, and Emmanuelle Béart in prominent roles.

Helmed by Brian De Palma, the motion picture became a box-office success as it amassed $180,981,856 in the United States of America and Canada. Its worldwide total was $457,696,391 against a production budget of $80,000,000.

Jim Phelps and his IMF team are sent to Prague to stop a rogue agent from stealing the CIA NOC list. The mission fails and everyone in the team is killed, except for Ethan Hunt.

The IMF director Eugene Kittridge informs him of the setup being put together to bring out a suspected mole within the organisation, Hunt soon realises he's being considered the mole.

He decides to embark on a mission to find the real mole responsible, find the NOC list and also clear his name of the blame, by using assistance from disavowed IMF agents, Luther Stickell and Franz Kreiger.

15. The Firm (1993)

The Firm (1993)

With a budget of $42,000,000, this blockbuster film raked in an impressive $270,248,367 at the box office. Directed by Sydney Pollack and featuring a star-studded cast including Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Gene Hackman, this movie is a must-watch for all movie fans.

Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law School graduate, accepts a job offer from a prestigious law firm, but soon discovers that they are involved in illegal activities. 

As he struggles to gather evidence against them, he risks his life and his marriage. 

With the help of his wife and a private investigator, he must obtain the evidence he needs and brings the firm down, but not before making a deal with the Morolto crime family. 

Available Countries: United States, and Japan

16. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

Austin Powers in Goldmember premiered in theatres in 2002. Directed by Jay Roach, this movie features Mike Myers, Beyoncé, and Seth Green in the lead. If you have a particular liking for action-adventure movies, then you can try this title.

Austin Powers in Goldmember received a score of 6.2 on IMDb and 62 on Metacritic.

The arch-nemesis of the 60s crackpot-spy Austin Powers has escaped a maximum-security prison. Dr Evil and his tiny cloned version Mini-Me hatch a scheme with the gold-crazed supervillain Goldmember, who is known for being quite the pervert.

Before long, Nigel Powers finds his life on the line, prompting his son Austin Powers to initiate a rescue mission. He teams up with undercover agent Foxxy Cleopatra to seek solutions based on mysterious events that took place in 1975.

Available Countries: Australia

17. Oblivion (2013)

Oblivion (2013)

Oblivion is an action-adventure film that has been helmed for the screen by Joseph Kosinski. It features actors Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, and Andrea Riseborough in pivotal roles. The motion picture was released in 2013 with a 2 hours and 4 min runtime.

It's 2077, and Jack Harper and Victoria Olsen are the only surviving humans on Earth. After scavenger aliens decimate the Moon and invade the Earth using nuclear weapons to render the Earth inhabitable, humans shift to Titan, Saturn's Moon.

The two remained to repair combat drones and guard the conversion of seawater into fusion energy to provide energy to Titan. With their memories wiped clean, Jack has a recurring dream of a pre-war life and a mysterious woman.

Available Countries: Canada

18. Jack Reacher (2012)

Jack Reacher (2012)

Jack Reacher is an action-mystery which has been helmed for the screen by Christopher McQuarrie.

Toplined by actors such as Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, and Richard Jenkins (main characters), the film was released in 2012 with a runtime of 2 hours and 10 min.

A skilled sniper takes out five innocent people in a city. An investigation leads the police to James Barr, an ex-United States Army Sniper with a dark history. Barr asks his lawyer, Helen Rodin, to find Jack Reacher, a drifter and ex-US Army Military Police Corps investigator.

Reacher arrives on seeing the news of Barr and agrees to be his investigator if Helen Rodin agrees to speak to Barr's victims' families. They soon realise there's much more to the killings than meets the eye.

Available Countries: Australia, Germany, France, Italy, and India

19. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Released in 2000, Mission: Impossible II is credited with bringing well-deserved acclaim to John Woo. His sharp and confident direction kept the viewers glued to their seats for about 2 hours and 3 min.

Needless to mention, the motion picture managed to rake in the moolah at the box office and ended up delighting its producers. Its total global gross stood at around $546,388,108 by the end of its theatrical run.

Dr Vladimir Nekhorvich sends a message to the IMF for Ethan Hunt and warns that he's been forced to develop a biological weapon called the Chimera virus to profit from the cure. He also provides its remedy, Bellerophon. But with Hunt on holiday, rogue agent Sean Ambrose disguises himself as Hunt and steals the remedy.

Hunt must now take up the deathly mission along with Nyah Hall to not just put an end to the Chimera virus but also trace Ambrose and ensure terrorists don't get their hands on the destructive material.

20. Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun (1986)

The success of Top Gun at the box office is a testament to its brilliance. With a budget of $15,000,000 and $357,288,178 gross, this movie is a must-see for all movie lovers.

Directed by Tony Scott and featuring an incredible cast led by Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, and Kelly McGillis, it is no surprise that it was so well-received by audiences.

Reckless and daring navy pilot Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell is accepted into Top Gun, Miramar’s Naval Air Station, for further training, along with his partner Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw. Once there, the young, brash, impulsive pilot starts an affair with civilian consultant Charlotte Blackwood and gets into a raging rivalry with fellow topper Tom “Iceman’ Kazansky.

However, the sudden demise of Maverick’s best friend, Goose, coupled and the plaguing thoughts of his father’s sudden and mysterious death haunting him, begin to play with his head. Will these thoughts come in the way of winning the trophy, or will the prestigious Top Gun award remain a distant dream for him?

Available Countries: Germany, Italy, Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan

21. Knight and Day (2010)

Knight and Day (2010)

Bankrolled by Twentieth Century Fox and helmed by James Mangold, Knight and Day is an action-adventure that hit the screens in 2010.

Looking forward to attending her sister April's wedding in Boston, June Havens bumps into Roy Miller at the airport and is bumped to a later flight, leading CIA agent John Fitzgerald to believe she's working with Roy.

Meanwhile, the flight is crash landed in a cornfield by Roy who drugs her and warns her about agents coming after her. When she arrives home, she's picked by Fitzgerald and his agents, leading Roy to appear and convince her to stay with him.

June soon learns that Roy has the Zephyr and is guarding its inventor against Fitzgerald.

Available Countries: United Kingdom, Australia, France, Italy, and India

22. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is an action-crime which has been helmed for the screen by Edward Zwick.

Toplined by actors such as Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, and Aldis Hodge (main characters), the film was released in 2016 with a runtime of 1 hour and 58 min.

After busting a human trafficking ring and getting a corrupt County Sheriff arrested, Jack Reacher returns to Washington, where he learns about Major Susan Turner being accused of espionage and her subsequent arrest.

When Turner's veteran lawyer Bob Moorcroft is murdered, Reacher is accused of the killing and sent to prison. There Reacher unearths a conspiracy involving the army, government officials and a terrifying arms organisation.

23. The Mummy (2017)

The Mummy (2017)

Headlined by Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Annabelle Wallis, The Mummy is an action-adventure that hit the screens in 2017.

Alex Kurtzman brought the story to life with the help of competent crew members such as David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, and Dylan Kussman (screenplay), Ben Seresin (cinematography), and many others.

Nick Morton and Jenny Halsey unwittingly awaken an ancient Egyptian princess, Ahmanet, who seeks to use Nick as a vessel for the god Set. With the help of a secret society and the spirit of a fallen comrade, Nick battles to save the world from destruction while struggling to control the god's power within him.

Available Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and France

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  1. Tom Cruise in Magnolia

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  2. Sección visual de Magnolia

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  3. 'Magnolia' At 20: Paul Thomas Anderson's Masterpiece Still Blossoms

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  4. Magnólia filme

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  5. Magnolia from Tom Cruise's Best Roles

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  6. Magnolia: What Happened To The Cast?

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VIDEO

  1. Midnight at the Magnolia (MarVista Movie Review)

COMMENTS

  1. Magnolia

    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 ...

  2. Magnolia (film)

    Magnolia is a 1999 American epic psychological drama film written, directed and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson.It stars an ensemble cast, including Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Melinda Dillon, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Jay, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards (in his final film role) and Melora Walters.

  3. Magnolia streaming: where to watch movie online?

    Magnolia streaming: where to watch online? Currently you are able to watch "Magnolia" streaming on Paramount Plus, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel. It is also possible to buy "Magnolia" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft Store, DIRECTV, AMC on ...

  4. Magnolia

    Stream Magnolia, watch trailers, see the cast, and more at TV Guide ... The Ultimate Guide to What to Watch on Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Max, and More in February 2024 ... Tom Cruise Frank T.J ...

  5. Tom Cruise to Lead Alejandro Iñárritu's New Film for WB ...

    Tom Cruise will star in ... He released the Spanish-language passion project "Bardo" on Netflix ... Cruise formerly starred in "The Last Samurai," "Magnolia," "Eyes Wide Shut ...

  6. Tom Cruise to Star in New Alejandro G. Iñárritu Movie

    Tom Cruise will star ... Iñárritu last directed the Spanish-language Netflix ... and Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire (1997), and once for supporting actor in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia ...

  7. Magnolia

    Tom Cruise gives one of the most talked about and celebrated performances of his career in Magnolia. Now on Netflix.

  8. 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Making Of Magnolia

    Here are some little known facts about the film. Paul Thomas Anderson 's Magnolia is considered one of the finest films to be produced in the past two decades. The three-hour multi-narrative tale of several interconnected Los Angelinos earned three Oscar nominations and two Golden Globes, including a win for star Tom Cruise in a Supporting Role.

  9. Tom Cruise Teams With Auteur Director Alejandro G ...

    This will be Cruise's first non-franchise film since 2017. Tom Cruise is set to star in a new film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The script for the film was written by Iñárritu, Sabina Berman ...

  10. Magnolia (1999)

    Is Magnolia (1999) streaming on Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Peacock, or 50+ other streaming services? Find out where you can buy, rent, or subscribe to a streaming service to watch it live or on-demand. ... The top-notch cast includes Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina ...

  11. A Controversial Tom Cruise Movie Can Be Found On Netflix

    One such Tom Cruise film that definitely raised eyebrows is now available to parse through on Netflix. Magnolia is a hefty movie, clocking in at over three hours. It's at once an ensemble piece that, unless you're a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson films, may be an acquired taste. The film stars Tom Cruise in an award-worthy performance as Frank ...

  12. Ross Jeffries Inspired Tom Cruise's Character In 'Magnolia'

    Meet Pickup Artist Ross Jeffries, The Inspiration For Tom Cruise's Character In 'Magnolia'. Dariel Figueroa January 6, 2015. I called the hotline number that fed to Ross Jeffries' Speed ...

  13. The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Tom Cruise's Character In Magnolia

    Tom Cruise has quite an impressive body of work and while it's difficult for some to pick a career-best performance from the actor, I would choose one without hesitation: Frank T.J. Mackey in ...

  14. The 10 Best Tom Cruise Movies to Stream in 2022

    Magnolia. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Oblivion. Risky Business. Valkyrie. Tom Cruise has had one of Hollywood's most varied and exciting careers, from his days as a teen idol to his award-winning dramatic turns to his larger-than-life action-hero roles. Here are 10 of the best Tom Cruise movies to stream.

  15. This 2017 Tom Cruise thriller is the most popular movie on Netflix

    This 2017 Tom Cruise action thriller is the most popular movie on Netflix right now. ... from Born on the Fourth of July to Magnolia. Even more recently, though, Cruise has found vehicles that ...

  16. Magnolia movie review & film summary (1999)

    Powered by JustWatch. "Magnolia" is a film of sadness and loss, of lifelong bitterness, of children harmed and adults destroying themselves. As the narrator tells us near the end, "We may be through with the past, but the past is never through with us." In this wreckage of lifetimes, there are two figures, a policeman and a nurse, who do what ...

  17. Tom Cruise's 'Magnolia' Performance Will Never Not Make Me Cry

    On good ol' Tommy C.'s 56th birthday, we're looking back at at the emotional weight of Frank "T.J." Mackey.

  18. Magnolia (1999)

    Magnolia: Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. With Pat Healy, Genevieve Zweig, Mark Flanagan, Neil Flynn. An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

  19. Magnolia: What Happened To The Cast?

    We look back on Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film "Magnolia," and how the careers of Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and others have unfolded since.

  20. Fifteen Years Later: Tom Cruise and 'Magnolia'

    A late-night horror movie host who went by "Ghoulardi," Mr. Anderson purchased a Betamax video camera for his son when the boy was twelve, launching the director on his path. Cruise understood. He, too, had lost his father early. But in truth he'd lost his dad — and namesake — Thomas Cruise Mapother III years before.

  21. Tom Cruise to star in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Next Film

    Tom Cruise has found a potential next movie. ... more like Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film 'Magnolia', for which Cruise scored a richly deserved Oscar ... he returned in 2022 for Netflix ...

  22. 'Glass Onion': Why Edward Norton Dressed As Tom Cruise From 'Magnolia'

    Dec 23, 2022, 7:27 AM PST. Edward Norton in "Glass Onion" dressed like Tom Cruise in "Magnolia." Netflix. Warning: Spoiler below if you haven't seen "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." Edward ...

  23. Watch Magnolia

    Magnolia. Free trial, rent, or buy. ER, Season 1. Subscribe or buy. Details. More info. Content advisory ... Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Jason Robards Studio WARNER BROS. Other formats. DVD from $8.49. Multi-format from $14.94. Blu-ray $29.99. By ordering or viewing, you agree to our Terms. Sold by Amazon.com Services LLC.

  24. Magnolia (1999)

    makeup artist: Tom Cruise Gabor Heiligenberg ... hair stylist Selina Jayne ... makeup artist Elaine L. Offers ... makeup artist: Julianne Moore (as Elaine Offers) Tina Roesler Kerwin ... key makeup artist (as Tina K. Roesler) Peggy Teague ... makeup artist Kelvin R. Trahan ...

  25. Warner. Bros Spending Spree: Joker 2 $200 Million Budget, Tom Cruise Deal

    Even with Cruise's star power, "Magnolia" only mustered $48.5 million. (It was De Luca, then a New Line exec, who convinced Cruise to play "Magnolia's" misogynistic self-help guru.)

  26. Review: Netflix's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is one of the

    Norton fuses his notoriously prickly public persona with a slime-ball tech-bro charm to create a hiss-worthy dolt (he also at one point dresses exactly like Tom Cruise's character in Magnolia ...

  27. Top 23 Best Tom Cruise Movies On Netflix In 2024 [Ranked]

    Available Countries: Italy, and Switzerland. 9. War of the Worlds (2005) War of the Worlds premiered in theatres in 2005. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this movie features Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, and Tim Robbins in the lead. If you have a particular liking for action-adventure movies, then you can try this title.

  28. Official Trailer

    Theatrical trailer of "Magnolia" by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Pat Healy, Genevieve Zw...