After his first feature Hard Eight went by with little fanfare, his second film won him the attention of filmmakers and audiences worldwide. Boogie Nights was a brutally explicit exploration of the world of pornography, and the lonely, broken people in the center of its decadence. While its story lacked the resonance of Magnolia , Anderson found among the debauchery a compassionate tale about people trying to meet their needs of family and love in the middle of a dehumanizing industry. Anderson deserved the kudos for the accomplished styling of the picture. It was clear he was bound for great things.
Magnolia is definitely another step upward.
It tells the stories of many many characters struggling to cope with their variously fractured families. A TV producer lies dying, his memory beginning to fail, crying out to see his lost son. A cable-TV celebrity who gives seminars on seducing women is challenged by an insightful television journalist, and the ghosts of his past grow restless under his carefully built facade. A former quiz-kid champion struggles with the uselessness of his knowledge, and the emptiness of his lonely life. To mention all of the stories here would take up far too much time.