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There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, ‘Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it.’ Well, believe it, because all of what follows actually happened during the making of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 film Magnolia.

A film and production of gambles, absurdities, forgiveness, and reckonings, Magnolia evolved from what would be the final shot of the film – a smile, a symbol of hope in a world of misery, lost drive and…frogs – into one of the most divisive, memorable and best films of the century.

So, let’s get our buzzers ready and wise up as we find out: What happened to this movie?!

Magnolia has its origins in the post-production of Boogie Nights, with Paul Thomas Anderson looking into going down to the “intimate and small scale” of his 1996 debut,...

Josh Brolin was convinced to join the cast of 'Weapons' by the "brilliant" script from Zach Cregger.The 56-year-old actor will appear in the horror thriller alongside Julia Garner and Alden Ehrenreich and explained that he was very impressed when he met the filmmaker after initially "struggling" to join the project at first.Josh told Collider: "I really liked his first movie, but it's still new for him and all that. Then I met him a couple of times and we talked through what he was thinking."It's a really good script, first of all. He's put together a really good cast, especially now – Julia Garner, who I love, and Alden, who's great, who I did 'Hail, Caesar!' with. There's a lot of really good people involved."The 'Dune: Part Two' star continued: "This was one of the few times when I finally went, 'Okay, let's do...

Julia Garner is set to star in the horror thriller 'Weapons'.The 30-year-old actress has landed a leading role opposite Josh Brolin in the feature from filmmaker Zach Cregger.The director has also penned the top-secret script for the project – which has been described as an epic story that has a similar tone to 'Magnolia', Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 movie that had a cast including Jeremy Blackman and Tom Cruise.The film is set to begin shooting in Atlanta in the middle of next month.Julia rose to prominence with her role in the Netflix series 'Ozark' and is now one of the industry's most in-demand stars – to the extent that she had been cast as Madonna in a biopic.The project was shelved last year as the Queen of Pop embarked on her 'Celebration' world tour although Julia hasn't given up hope of getting to star in the film.

Chicago – HollywoodChicago.com critic Matt Fagerholm will chat about the latest independent films on Chicago’s Vocalo 89.5 station from 9am to 9:30am on Friday, September 28th. Topics will include Stephen Cone’s acclaimed indie drama, “The Wise Kids,” which is scheduled to have a week-long run at the Gene Siskel Film Center beginning Friday, October 26th.

The Vocalo program will include excerpts from Matt’s podcast interview with “Wise Kids” star Allison Torem, who received a Jeff Award nomination for her performance in David Schwimmer’s 2010 stage production of “Trust.” The entirety of the podcast interview will be published this evening on Matt’s independent film blog, Indie Outlook. The site includes in-depth discussions with a wide variety of filmmakers, including Nathan Adloff (“Nate & Margaret”), Lawrence Michael Levine (“Gabi on the Roof in July”) and Todd Looby (“Be Good”). There are also some new exclusive interviews with cult icon Juliette Danielle,...

The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films as ranked by the users of the biggest internet movie site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of the Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.

It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case we is myself and Barry) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list. We’ve frozen the list as of January 1st of this year, find it here. It’s not as simple as it sounds, we are watching them all in one year, 125 each.

This is our 22nd update and my next five films watched for the project. I had a few...

Chicago – Has any director watched their reputation rise as rapidly as the amazing Paul Thomas Anderson? With only five films under his belt - “Hard Eight,” “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia,” “Punch-Drunk Love,” and “There Will Be Blood” - the man has become one of the most respected and adored filmmakers in the world. Why? He not only hasn’t made a bad film, he hasn’t even come close. His second and third are now available on Blu-ray.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

P. T. Anderson’s incredible eye (and the perfect cinematography of Robert Elswit) makes for a perfect fit with the world of Blu-ray. Put simply, “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia” look amazing in 1080p. These are the kind of films (“There Will Be Blood” even more so) meant to be watched with pristine video as large as you can possibly see it. They are worlds to get lost in. Don’t watch...

Paul Thomas Anderson created a thing of beauty with Magnolia. Stringing together the lives of many individuals into a portrait of loneliness, Magnolia uses multiple narratives to expose that empty space inside each and every one of us. It doesn’t matter if you’re speaking to an auditorium filled with chauvinistic men eager to learn secrets to scoring more sex or working a solitary beat as a California police officer, you can still feel alone. Having both written and directed this requiem for the human condition, Anderson takes aim at different personalities and how they intentionally or accidentally alienate themselves to nights spent alone. Whatever the angle of a unique character, chances are they mirror at least one or two others in the film. Chances are. With loneliness, chance is perhaps the greatest theme to be found in Magnolia.

Frank Mackey (Tom Cruise) teaches men to dominate women. Phil...