Herald rating: * * * *
Running time: 179 mins
Rental: Now
Review: Ewan McDonald
American cinema is bland, formulaic, predictable, dumb McMovie. People around the world lap it up because they're seduced by Hollywood's huge publicity campaigns.
That used to be the case but you'd have difficulty arguing it after recent screen gems
like Being John Malkovich, Three Kings, Bringing Out The Dead and this.
Paul Thomas Anderson's movie is an interlocking series of characters, many involved in TV, and episodes that take place during one day in LA. He has attracted a stunning array of talent and convinced every one to take a risk outside their usual PR-buffed image.
Jason Robards plays a dying tycoon who produces many shows; Philip Baker Hall, also dying, is a game-show host; Tom Cruise is Robards' estranged son, who stars in infomercials about how to seduce women. Melora Walters is Hall's daughter, who doesn't believe anything he says; Melinda Dillon is his unhappy wife; William H. Macy plays a former quiz kid who's now a drunk with a bad job.
All these lives connect in a conclusion that you might have been tipped off about in the beginning, but won't expect or predict.
