Magnolia was released in the same year as American Beauty, a film with which it shares much in common, and which received much more attention from the film-going public.  And though I don’t want to take away anything from Beauty, with its superb performance from Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Chris Cooper I think that Magnolia is the superior film.  Starring a large ensemble cast (Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jason Robards in his last film before his death), Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is an amazing meditation on grace, mercy and forgiveness. 

One of the most memorable scenes in the movie takes place when the Aimee Mann song Wise Up begins to play and the various characters sing the song along with her wherever they are.  I remember how shocking it was, during my first viewing of the film, to watch this blatant breaking of the cinematic rules.  But even so, or perhaps because of this, I found and find this scene to be incredibly effective and moving.  Here it is via youtube.   

The scene above was brought to my mind when I read this post – Save Me – Aimee Mann written by Thomas Tobias Danna on Tuesday, 21 August 2007 on his blog Astonished, Yet At Home!  Thomas also posts the following Mann video on his site.