How to describe Paul Thomas Anderson’s nineties magnum opus Magnolia? We’ll start with this: it might be the best Tom Cruise has ever been. As sleazy self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey, he’s utterly loathsome - until he isn’t. How all the pieces of Anderson’s puzzle fall into place is a beautifully complicated masterstroke from the director, and from Cruise himself. The lives of several people, seeking happiness, forgiveness, and meaning, become intertwined over the course of twenty-four bizarre hours in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Among them is a lascivious pick-up artist (Tom Cruise), a washed up child prodigy (William H. Macy), a hapless police officer (John C. Reilly), the trophy wife of a dying game show producer (Julianne Moore), and his nurse (Phillip Seymour Hoffman).