This would be Kasi Lemmons, right?

Yeah! That was her name. IMDb says she played Jodie Foster's friend in Quantico in The Silence of the Lambs. Nothing recent I've heard of, however.

I have mixed reactions to Magnolia. I found sections of it terribly sad/wonderful (bits to do with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's and William H. Macy's characters; the story of the cop and the junkie-woman), but was irritated witless by the Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore characters (and unlike Plei, I usually like Julianne Moore), despite their emotional breakthroughs at the end.

The WTF-ness of the last few minutes was almost worth sitting through the whole thing though. Personally, my favorite part of the movie was the prologue with the freak deaths narration.

it was just...people.

Yup. Boring, loathesome, hateful, pathetic people. The only character I could tolerate was Philip Seymour Hoffman's character.

And the Aimee Mann sing-a-long? No. Just....no.

And the Aimee Mann sing-a-long? No. Just....no.

Heh. I dug the sing-a-long. I adore the Magnolia soundtrack and have been known to do sing along to "Wise Up" whenever it comes on.

I thougth Julianne Moore and Tom Cruise were hateful--but Bill Macy and the little Quiz boy and John C. Reilly and Hoffman's character all broke my heart. In a good way.

And the Aimee Mann sing-a-long? No. Just....no.

Heh. I dug the sing-a-long.

Yeah, but -- dead people were singing! (Braiiiiiiiiinnnnnnssssss....)

I thought Tom Cruise's character was the Embodiment of the characters/persona Tom Cruise likes to portray. It was one of the few times that he hasn't made me want to throw things while he's on screen.

I thought that Magnolia was an attempt at something that failed brilliantly. I don't think it succeeded in what it was trying to do, but I thought that there were smaller moments in it that were amazing, and some top-notch acting. That said, I can't bring myself to watch it again.

Oh. Hated the frogs.

Karaoke zombies! It's comedy gold, man.

Sue--that's EXACTLY how I felt. I don't think it succeeds, but there are such wonderful, brilliant moments in it that it makes it worth watching. After the first time I saw it, the frogs ticked me off so much I swore I'd never see it again, but I did last year and found myself liking it even more.

PTA is yucky!

And the Aimee Mann sing-a-long? No. Just....no.

It was so beautiful, it almost made me cry.

Yeah, but -- dead people were singing!

What? What are you talking about? No one was dead. Unless you have this theory that Earl was dead the whole time or something.

I knew the frogs were coming, so that might have tempered my reaction to them.