I'm really stretching the title of this thread now cos I'm gonna post up a film I haven't actually seen yet - well I have but not for years. But I haven't yet completed the viewing on which the recommendation I will make (if I still like it) will be based... I'm glad I've cleared that up so concisely and elegantly.
Let me begin again, the film Magnolia is on tv now and I've just started watching it - when I saw it before, which was just when it came out, I enjoyed it a lot as far as I remember, but I remember very little about it, mainly Tom Cruise's minor-yet-film-stealing role (the exact opposite of those he usually plays) as the life-coach guy who teaches men how to dominate women and trick them into sleeping with them.
I'm very keen to see if the film still stands up for me twenty yeas later - in fact did it stand up for me even then or did I just pretend to like it cos I knew it was a brainy film that the critics liked and I wanted to be brainy too? The latter we'll probably never know the real answer to but the first one I should be able to reveal.
It clearly has a great cast with Seymour Hoffman, William H Macy, Julianne Moore, John C Reilly... a huge overlap with Boogie NIghts which came out a couple of years before, but with the addition of the guy who plays Dr "There is one prick involved" Morrison in Curb Your Enthusiasm who should never be called at home.
Boogie Nights is still good (I can say with some confidence cos it's on so often, and I've seen it many times) but although in my head I like PTA and think of him as a good director, looking through his filmography it's not that good; There Will be Blood (hugely overrated), The Master (thinks it's clever but basically very boring), Inherent Vice (one of Pynchon's weakest books adapted in a workmanlike way that doesn't improve on the novel enough to make the film much cop)... and some other films which I've not even seen! So for PTA if he still wants to be considered as an important director in the IdleRIch pantheon then he had better hope that I still like this one, his reputation is really hanging in the balance and I'm sure we'd all understand if he is biting his nails right now.