World cinema classic #44

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRcuDz1ZZhw]

Tom Cruise advertises Seduce and Destroy in Magnolia, his best part to date.

Another epic of American depression, and one of my first positive surprises when I took up film-viewing again in the early 2000s. A philosophical film in the magic realism vein. The opening scene – a rumination on the nature of the coincidence – totally blew me away. Anderson’s other films: I’ve started watching Boogie Nights but did not finish it and can hardly remember anything about it. Same with Punch drunk …, failed to get me involved. Have yet to do There will be Blood, but doubt if I will. 1999 was a good film year.

World Cinema Classics is a series of films canonical to ArtAndPopularCulture.com.

Update: infomercial transcription:

Frank TJ Mackey: In this big game that we play, life, it’s not what you hope for, it’s not what you deserve, it’s what you take. I’m Frank T.J. Mackey, a master of the muffin and author of the Seduce and Destroy system now available to you on video and audio cassette. Seduce and Destroy will teach you the techniques to have any hardbody blonde just dripping to wet your dock. Bottom line? Language. The magical key to unlocking the female analytical mindset. Tap directly into her hopes, her wants, her fears, her desires, and her sweet little panties. Learn how to make that lady “friend” your sex-starved servant. I don’t care how you look. I don’t care what car you drive. I don’t care what your last bank statement says. Seduce and Destroy produces an instant money-back guarantee trance-like state that will get you this — naughty sauce you want fast. Hey — how many more times do you need to hear the all-too-famous line of ‘I just don’t feel that way about you?’