Matthew Sewell teaches film and literature at Minnesota State University, Mankato. 
“Magnolia’s most instructive revelation occurs obliquely and, quite literally, microscopically. The shot occurs during the climactic rain of frogs, as Claudia and her mother, panicked, cling to each other in Claudia’s apartment. The camera bends away from their embrace toward one of Claudia’s paintings, zooming in so that we can read the words “but it did happen” in the bottom right corner . . .”
“George Lucas, engaged in an endless quest for perfect, seamless fantasy, hopes to erase any trace of the tricks necessary to build it. Oz instead understands that the evidence of artifice can itself bear meaning: in this case, that our wildest, most wish-fulfilling fantasies will still reflect our limitations.”
“And it insists on looking.”
Actors & Personalities · Essays
“The time-and-place for Dean’s performances is always now, in the moment of its creation, and he resists any technique that obscures that fact.”
