Magnolia (2000)

It's not a very original idea: take a great ensemble cast, put them in a three-hour-plus movie, and weave together several interconnected stories all set during the same short period of time. Robert Altman did it with Short Cuts, and Michael Winterbottom did it more recently with Wonderland (although he did keep the running time trim). So how is Magnolia such a startlingly refreshing piece of cinema? And why should you invest 188 minutes of your precious time on this story of a bunch of troubled Los Angelinos?

Read the full Magnolia review