Magnolia (1999)

Don’t you just love urban legends? I’ve heard them, repeated them and know folks who know folks to whom they have happened. It’s a constant source of gossip and confusion. One of the best forms a plot line here. Sydney Barringer (Chris O’Hara), a 17-year-old boy, attempts suicide by jumping off the roof of his apartment building. It becomes a homicide when he was accidentally shot by his mother Faye (Miriam Margolyes) as he fell past his own apartment window. His parents, Fay and Arthur (Clement Blake) argued often and threatened each other with a supposedly unloaded shotgun. But Sydney had loaded it a few days earlier hoping they would follow through with their threats to kill one another. Thus he unwittingly became an accomplice in his own murder, albeit unwittingly. Even creepier is that a newly installed protective netting for window washers on the apartments building’s exterior would have saved his life if he had not been shot.

Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson Writer:  Paul Thomas Anderson Cast:
Tom Cruise -  Frank T.J. Mackey Pat Healy -  Sir Edmund William Godfrey/Young Pharmacy Kid Julianne Moore -  Linda Partridge Genevieve Zweig -  Mrs. Godfrey Mark Flannagan -  Joseph Green William H. Macy -  Quiz Kid Donnie Smith Neil Flynn -  Stanley Berry Philip Seymour Hoffman -  Phil Parma		Rod McLachlan -  Daniel Hill Allan Graf -  Firefighter Melora Walters -  Claudia Wilson Gator Philip Baker Hall -  Jimmy Gator Patton Oswalt -  Delmer Darion Jeremy Blackman -  Stanley Spector Raymond ‘Big Guy’ Gonzales -  Reno Security Guard Melinda Dillon -  Rose Gator