Word: surreal
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Magnolia's faithfulness to the surreal irregularity and aimlessness of life is what distinguishes it from its nearest relative, Robert Altman's Short Cuts. Where that film found black social satire in forcing its inhabitants' to collide in a series of chance events, Magnolia opts for an intimate and studied portrait of each of its nine focal characters by allowing their suffering to be its own dramatic vehicle. Nonetheless, Anderson is a cinephile, and he is indebted here, as in all of his work, to other distinctive and established filmmakers, Altman especially. This film bears some obvious resemblance to Short...
...Stein's desires, perhaps the strangest is his Kennedyesque hope that the 12-year-old will be elected to Congress when he grows up. So Stein continues to sweat over the $5,000 each night, hoping to stockpile enough to make his son independently wealthy and complete the surreal version of the American Dream that has shaped Ben Stein's life...
...around the theater, a mirror reflecting the audience onto the ceiling. Maybe one day it will be trendy to like Cirque du Soleil--and shows will pop up all over the country just like Riverdance. Oooh. The thought makes me nauseous. Until then, appreciate the chance to discover this surreal secret of dizzying imagination...
...into his world, and you go, "Wow, I'm, in the land of Tim Burton. I'm in his mind. I'm in his head right now --I'm like in The Nightmare Before Christmas." This is not the real world. He takes a fantasy world, a surreal world, and makes it unbelievably believable. And it's not real. It's so odd looking, but you believe it wholeheartedly. And that's part of his magic...
...comedian who had crafted his bizarre alter-ego of Pee-Wee Herman, Burton found a comrade-in-oddness and the perfect start to work with on this all-important first film. With a story centering around Herman's search for his lost bicycle, Adventure led one on a surreal road trip across the U.S. complete with giant concrete dinosaurs, biker gangs and a memorable rendition of the song "Tequila." One of the sleeper hits of 1985, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure established Burton as a "bankable" director...