Well. It has certainly been a long time. Recent interest in PTA pulled me to it. Tom Cruise, almost mad, almost but not quite over the top (like DDL in Blood, which is also on the rewatch list). Great scene in which he's pulled apart by April Grace (also excellent). Great scene after great scene, in fact. The music (Jon Brion) doesn't hardly let up for about two hours, pulls you into the film, which is often jaw-droppingly hypnotic. Marked by many long and complicated camera tracks (Robert Elswit of course) and nifty editing (Dylan Tichenor). You have to pick your moment to take a cake break carefully.
Perhaps the stand-out bits of acting are from Julianne Moore (who's so good e.g. in pharmacy scene you think she's going to emerge off the screen at you) and Jason Robards, who's (almost) last film this was. PTA / Tichenor often don't cut away from performances so that for example we don't see quite as much of Philip Seymour Hoffman as we'd like to (Paul wanted to work with Philip ever since seeing him in Scent of a Woman).
William H Macy, John C Reilly, Melora Walters (the aggressive daughter), Felicity Huffman, Michael Murphy, Luis Guzman, Philip Baker Hall (quiz show presenter). Everyone is so good there doesn't feel like any acting. Songs by Aimee Mann.
Prologue and rain of frogs amazing. Epic film requires much after-discussion. Key to the film is the opening song 'One is the loneliest number' - you yearn for people to connect, and eventually, they do.
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