Plot
While set within the milieu of the Los Angeles adult film industry, Boogie Nights is less a film about pornography than the serio-comic story of a group of misfits, losers, and lost souls who are embraced by Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a director who makes "adult films, exotic motion pictures." In 1977, while hanging out at a disco, Jack spots Eddie (Mark Wahlberg), the new busboy at the club, and tells him he's convinced "there's something wonderful inside those jeans waiting to get out." Jack knows his business well and his expert eye has not betrayed him; Eddie is a pornographer's dream -- good looking, remarkably endowed, and willing and able to do as many takes as might be needed. The product of a woefully dysfunctional upbringing, Eddie is not terribly bright but is very ambitious and eager to prove he has a "special something" to share with the world. Eddie changes his name to Dirk Diggler and quickly becomes the biggest star in hardcore. Working alongside "Dirk" in Jack's films are Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), a porn actress who applies her misplaced maternal instincts to anyone who needs nurturing; Rollergirl (Heather Graham), a cheerful but blank-faced high school drop-out who never removes her roller skates; Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), a none-too-bright actor, aspiring magician, and failing songwriter; Buck (Don Cheadle), a black actor fascinated with cowboy iconography who wants to open a stereo shop; Scotty J (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a stocky and awkward soundman infatuated with Dirk; Little Bill (William H. Macy), Jack's assistant director, who has trouble dealing with his wife's brazen infidelity; and Colonel James (Robert Ridgely), Jack's backer, who has a weakness for young girls. In the brief, late-'70s moment when porn was chic and sex films seemed poised to break into the mainstream, Dirk becomes a star and Jack a respected name. But a few years later, drugs and pride have taken their toll on Dirk and many of his friends, while the advent of the VCR radically changes the adult movie business; Jack goes from being a "filmmaker" to manufacturing and wholesaling videocassettes, a wealthy but emotionally broken man. In his second film, wunderkind director Paul Thomas Anderson juggled a broad range of characters in a manner reminiscent of Robert Altman's ensemble films, making Boogie Nights a sad but funny story of a makeshift family of damaged people and what happens before and after their brief moment in the sun. ~ Mark Deming, RoviReview
Following his low-key debut Hard Eight (1996), Paul Thomas Anderson staked his claim to auteur status with his ambitious pornography and family epic Boogie Nights. Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the story of young porn star Dirk Diggler and his adult movie "family" upends convention, as Anderson non-judgmentally captures the spirited possibilities of '70s hedonism before it passed into a nakedly acquisitive, coke-fueled Reagan-era hell. Along with the period music, costumes, and décor, Anderson's bravura technique harks back to 1970s Hollywood, itself: there's a widescreen, Robert Altman-esque tapestry of characters; split-screen montage in the vein of Brian De Palma; audaciously assured Martin Scorsese-style long takes; and a final shot that pays homage to Raging Bull (1980). The sterling ensemble cast further brings Anderson's collection of dreamers to complex life, lending humane substance to the dazzling surface. In his best role in years, Burt Reynolds's nuanced turn as director Jack Horner earned him numerous critics' prizes and a long-desired Oscar nomination. Julianne Moore received equal approbation as maternal porn queen Amber Waves, while Mark Wahlberg's head-turning performance as Dirk proved that he was more than the sum of his body parts. Despite doubts over the film's latter half, Boogie Nights' accolades and prizes -- coupled with its decent box office returns and considerable longevity on video -- burnished Anderson's reputation as a new directorial star. ~ Lucia Bozzola, RoviCast
- Mark Wahlberg - Eddie Adams/Dirk Diggler
- Burt Reynolds - Jack Horner
- Julianne Moore - Amber Waves
- John C. Reilly - Reed Rothchild
- Don Cheadle - Buck Swope
- Heather Graham - Rollergirl
- Philip Seymour Hoffman - Scotty
- William H. Macy - Little Bill
Credit
Ted Berner - Art Director, Christine Sheaks - Casting, Daniel Lupi - Co-producer, Mark Bridges - Costume Designer, John Wildermuth - First Assistant Director, Paul Thomas Anderson - Director, Dylan Tichenor - Editor, Lawrence Gordon - Executive Producer, Michael Penn - Composer (Music Score), Bob Ziembicki - Production Designer, Robert Elswit - Cinematographer, Lloyd Levin - Producer, Joanne Sellar - Producer, John Lyons - Producer, Paul Thomas Anderson - Producer, Sandy Struth - Set Designer, Stephen Halbert - Sound/Sound Designer, Joanne Sellar - Screenwriter, Paul Thomas Anderson - Screenwriter, Michael De Luca - Co-Executive Producer, Lynn Harris - Co-Executive Producer| Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (2008 Film), Boogie Down Productions: Edutainment (1990 Film) | |
| Boogie Woogie (2004 Film), Boogie Woogie (2009 Film) |
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