Magnolia – New Line Cinema, 1999. Directed by P.T. Anderson

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This is another movie trailer that I think does a good job of piquing the audience’s interest without giving away much at all. Though this movie isn’t really as easily appealing and sellable to an audience like a movie like Snatch, I still think it does a good job. Also this is the first trailer I’ve reviewed which has special shoot footage i.e. footage shot specifically for use in the trailer. Yes, there’s often footage in trailers that got cut out of the movie, but in rare cases there’s footage shot just for the trailer that was never intended to ever go into the movie. According to the wikipedia article this trailer was cut by P.T. Anderson himself which makes a lot of sense.

Story – Well this one actually sort of spells out parts of the story, but doesn’t go into plot details. We have Stanley Spector, the boy genius who goes on quiz shows and Jimmy Gator who is the game show host. There’s also an ex-boy genius Donnie Smith who says he used to be smart, but now he’s just stupid. A dying man Earl Partridge and his estranged son Frank T.J. Mackie who is some sort of speaker as we see in the one shot. Earl Partridge’s wife Linda Partridge who has been taking care of him and seems rather attached in the scene she’s yelling at Philip Seymour Hoffman who plays his caretaker Phil Parma. Jimmy Gator’s wife Rose and daughter Claudia Wilson whom seems to be having some sort of relationship problems. A police officer Jim Kurring who is looking for a special someone. The narrator tells us this will all make sense in the end. The last bit of narration by Jim muses about how people sometimes need help or forgiveness, but wonders how we decide who those people are. As if understanding the audience’s confusion about what they just saw Tom Cruise’s character asks if that was unclear.

Editing & Music – P.T. Anderson’s style in his early films is very trailer friendly. Lots of camera movement, swish pans (great for transitions) and such. Like I said, this trailer uses special shoot footage of the cast members introducing themselves (swish pans before and after their line). This works great giving the trailer a nice visual continuity and general flow.

The movie Magnolia was inspired by the songs of Aimee Mann which is why her songs feature so heavily into the film and this trailer. The trailer starts with her song “Momentum” which fittingly is a nice upbeat song that fits the visual style and pace of the trailer. After the character introductions there’s a fast cut musical montage with a TV guy counting down which leads into John C. Reilly’s final narration. The final narration is edited to the musical score by Jon Brion and edited to what looks like what in any other trailer would be a montage of actor credits with graphics for their names. It’s intercut with the title cards “Things fall down, people look up, and when it rains it pours.” What does this have to do with anything? Who can tell?

You could look at this trailer kind of like a movie in itself. It starts with a slowly building story with a climactic montage, and a sort of denoument of sorts at the end with John C. Reilly’s narration. What I like about this trailer (and movie for that matter) is the great flow and if I may be permitted, momentum. The end titles really don’t tell us much about the movie on the most basic level. This trailer is indeed kind of like a mini-version of the movie, but you can’t get it entirely without watching the movie. Still, it’s intriguing in how you feel like you’ve learned a lot about the movie, but really know nothing at all.

Selling Points – This movie doesn’t do much that I think would make an advertising executive comfortable. Movie trailers usually try to say as much as possible about a movie because usually in focus group testing that’s what gets the most positive response. Like I said before though, we don’t actually learn a lot about the movie. Even though there’s no actor ID cards this trailer’s strongest selling point (other than the film itself) is the ensemble cast. Not all big box office draws (with the exception of Tom Cruise) so it’s really only going to attract the type of audience member who would want to see movies with these sorts of independent film actors in it. Oh and P.T. Anderson’s name is in there too. Lots of people saw Boogie Nights, so I’d say that’s the last selling point of this trailer.

Final Thoughts – I think Magnolia ended up being a somewhat polarizing film with lots of people who loved it and people who hated it. I happened to be one of the people who liked it a lot, and watching this trailer is always fun. When I saw the trailer in theaters I was very confused but interested. Not in the “I need to see that opening night” sort of interested, but definitely enough to think about seeing it in theaters.