10 January 2000

THE CHAT: It's Magnolia Week at Yahoo! Chat. Tonight, it's Paul Thomas Anderson at 8pET/5pPT and Aimee Mann at 9pET/6pPT. And Wednesday night, it's dysfunctional movie lovebirds Melora Walters and John C. Reilly back-to-back, also starting at 8pET/5pPT.

RADIO RADIO: Anthony Minghella was the most glorious of guests this Saturday. Good guy. Really good movie. And George was plugged in from Chicago. That was fun. This Saturday, The Movie Show comes to you from Maui and the junket for The Beach. Listen on KABC-790 right here in L.A. or try us on the web at kabc.com. Will Leo appear? Probably not, but you'll never know if you don't listen.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Coming to Los Angeles' American Cinematheque is a Billy Wilder retrospective, and if you love movies you should go to every movie in it. I'm going to miss almost the whole thing because of my travel schedule, but don't use me as an excuse.

BAD AD WATCH: So I am on a call last week and someone says, "I'm looking at your glossy picture right now." And I say, "Oh, an old copy of Premiere." But then someone else tells me I'm in this month's Premiere and so I go to the newsstand and I pick it up, and there is a roughcut.com evergreen that mentions The Hot Button, so I figure, "whatever." So on Sunday, the guys come over for football and they bring a copy of Premiere and there it is, my big fat mug screaming out from an early page. And here's the funniest part. No one at Turner told me it was coming. I never saw the mock-up. I never was told how grateful I should be (and I am). Just me and my mug in Premiere again. Surreal. Pretty good picture though. So, I guess I'm the bad ass this Monday.

READER OF THE DAY: MB wrote: "Magnolia was an amazing film. This is the kind of movie that makes me believe in movies, and inspires me to think and talk about a movie days after I have seen it. Despite the surprise, and all the hoopla about its cop-out nature (an argument I find really annoying), the final scene in this movie really speaks volumes for Anderson's film. That final smile really laid it on me, and made me smile not only for the characters, but for this movie, and the great experience I had in the theatre. I've heard too much about the length and the ending-out-of-God scenario (oh, but it has great performances they say, and so on...), but why? It makes me a little mad (in my own little "i know all the good movies" high horse way), because such poor reviews may keep some people away from this movie (thank God RE is there to champion it). I am encouraging all my friends to stop listening to some of the bad reviews and just go to see it. It is a movie for people who love movies indeed."

And on the flip side, SoSueMe wrote: "Last night I went to see Magnolia, and am very interested on your take. Here's mine. Firstly, it is a true Millennium movie. It lasts an entire millennium.

I have never seen a worse piece of crap in my life. There is not a single redeeming character, nobody to like or care about. I didn't care that (one character) almost died. I wished she/he did. Then I wouldn't have to listen to her/him say F*** every third word. Everyone else only used it every fifth word. I was happy about (blanked out for spoiler content). He deserved it after his idiotic self-centered "confession" that he (more spoiler cutting). But he really loved her. Yeah, that's why he told her.

Now Frank TJ was a truly lovable character, as was his dear dying dad who also confessed his philandering ways. Only Wife #1 wasn't around to hear. And sweet Linda was busy atoning for her own indiscretions and getting stoned. She was by far THE MOST ANNOYING CHARACTER EVER. Did I mention stupid? NOW she's sorry? The miserable old wretch is finally going to die (could he have taken any longer?) and NOW she doesn't want his money. Sure. Now THAT really rings true.

Maybe "I used to be smart" Donnie Somebody was even more annoying.

How about the poor dumb cop who cries a lot, talks to God and helps criminals put back stolen loot. I know lotsa cops like that. He should've shot himself when his gun (cut for spoilers).

Oh, I forgot the (spolier). Charming. You know, I've earned a doctorate, so I presume I'm not entirely without brains, but that one really passed me by.

So now should I really tell you how I feel about Magnolia?

If I find out you actually like this film, I will never pay attention to any of your reviews."

DAVID NOTE: The balance of the letters is clearly in favor of Magnolia. In fact, this is by far the most negative letter I've gotten. But given that this is ROTD, I decided to run one positive and one negative. Again, the letters are running 85 percent positive on Magnolia.

Also, there was a lot of mail from Canada about the proposed CBC ban against American films. Representative of those letters is this one, from AtoZ: "What Canadian movies would you ban from HBO? I mean, really, I watch as much stuff as we can produce, but there are a handful of Canadian productions that ever make it over the border (and that includes TV). And the horror that would be created by involving the U.S. Congress...A nastier, more xenophobic bunch has rarely been gathered, and now you want to give them a target...a benign target like Canada. My thoughts are simply to wait. The CBC will appeal this decision and lose, since our Prime Minister has a long-standing personal grudge against the CBC. Over time, the CBC ratings will collapse, and rather than admit failure or raise taxes the government will quietly allow the CBC to begin broadcasting US products again."

DAVID RESPONDS: My issue is really one of attitude, not real financial effect. As I wrote, I think that a lot of the runaway production screaming is just whining. America is about free enterprise and that means competition, and that means if Canada is willing to pay for a chunk of production to come north of the border, so be it. They're not cheating. But to tell me, "We want your production money, but we don't want to show your movies on our public TV," well, sod off, damn it. But there was a lot of mail with the same attitude as AtoZ...just forget it. No biggie. Well maybe not. But I like to be kissed before I'm screwed. So shoot me.

E ME: Canada, Magnolia and so much more. What do you think?