With a new Paul Thomas Anderson film waiting in the wings, Chris looks at the music of Magnolia...
Rarely is a film and musician as inextricable from one another as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and Aimee Mann. The singularity of her voice repeated throughout helps streamline Anderson’s massively expansive vision, like a tidy bow pulling together the film’s many untidy pieces. With the film’s religious themes and allegories, her omniscient voice makes Mann the film’s watchful angel, perhaps a messenger of God. She's as much as character as everyone else, if a far more enlightened one.
“One is the loneliest number...” and Anderson announces his ensemble as a collection of “ones”. The Harry Nilsson track is a smart choice, establishing that no matter their twisty associations to one another, each is essentially isolated. Having Mann cover the classic song marries the old and the new, sounding like something that’s lingered for an indeterminate time but still aches like a fresh bruise. A curse of the biblical variety destined to perpetuate and repeat itself...
What goes unnoticed on the first watch is the track’s repetition over a rather long and frenetic montage. The cumulative effect of a relatively short song stretched out over double its length gives a sense of the long endured depression among the people Anderson is introducing. However, the director is also giving us a barrage of information in sharp pans and disorienting zooms. The music and structure here work together to embody a self-medicated malaise, intentionally like a prescription that hasn’t yet gotten the mix right. Or the cocaine Claudia disappears into.
It’s also worth mentioning how Aimee Mann and her music were something of a muse for Anderson in writing the film. The precision with how he constructs the scenes and their mood around her voice feels both methodical and intuitive, a testament to both Anderson’s ability and the emotional intelligence of Mann’s music. The symbiosis of their mind meld is most present in the rainy “Wise Up” sequence - deliberately staged, and spine-seizingly moving even if you can’t put your finger on exactly why it is.
In a film full of gutsy cinematic flourishes, the group singalong is one of its most distinct and memorable. The sequence presents a distillation of its ensemble, all drowning in a similar feeling but each utterly alone. Mann is therefore an angel to hear their prayers, but not the one to solve them. The music doesn’t actually bring them together, or provide much comfort or resolution. Much as it lyrically presents a tipping point (not to mention serves as the film’s second act finale), don’t forget it takes an actual act of God to cure what ails them.
But after the miracle, these San Fernandians are still searching for answers of the spirit, some kind of rescuing connection. Aimee Mann’s best comes in at the end with “Save Me”, an ode to those who think they’re unlovable and, in turn, think they can’t love another. The weary, self-effacing vulnerability is a staple of Mann’s discography and it’s used beautifully here, to movie-defining effect. This surely makes for one of the coolest Original Song nominees of Oscar’s recent past, one that may return to the indie set again this year with Sufjan Stevens.
In the film, the song plays over Jim's romantic proclamation to Claudia, but we hardly hear him. It's as if Mann drowning him out is Claudia only able to hear the longing in her own heart, already willing Jim to accept her before he can say the words. When we feel this consumingly, our baggage isn't subtext, it's text - on the level that music can more easily convey than words. It’s a rather peaceful musical end to the wild film but still it comes from the deepest, most raw part of the soul. While she sings about being rescued, “Save Me” (and Magnolia) is really a song about healing.
We're still listening on what 2017 soundtrack you want to see covered next month! READER'S CHOICE! Tell us in the comments!
Previous Soundtracking Favorites:
Atomic Blonde
Lady Bird
Meet Me In St. Louis
Young Adult
Almost Famous
...all installments can be found here!