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Mark Wahlberg,
Mark Wahlberg,
Burt Reynolds,
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Joanne Sellar,
Paul Thomas Anderson,
Paul Thomas Anderson
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: 
: New Line Home Video
: Independent, Costume Drama/Period Piece
: English, French
: English, Spanish, French
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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, All Movie Guide
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| Risque & Amusing Portrayal
by JMVerville
December 8, 2004 - 7:23 AM PST
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2 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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I remember when initially wanting to watch this film I thought it would be very juvenile and risque for the sake of being risque, but in the end I found something different: a great film that was entertaining and at times fairly meaningful. It was very well-written, well-filmed, and a sad, dark portrayal of how the world can be as a place.
Although this film is undeniably for mature audiences, it is the sort of film that has enough meaning built into the shock to really justify the shocking nature of it. Not to mention that, but it is the sort of film that satisfies the curiosity into the world in which Dirk lived. Throughout the whole film the acting is exceptionally well, being such an easy film to get sucked into.
I think that the wide appeal for the film comes from its' thoroughness in character portrayal as well as the depth that each character has when it is cultivated in such a short amount of time; each person who appears in the film is more than just an image on the screen, but with the passage of time, you really see them as actual people. It is a movie that, while watching it, you simply forget it is a movie due to the perfection that Paul Thomas Anderson achieves in his realistic, no-holds barred film. I especially enjoy how Dirk Diggler is portrayed with his beaming innocence and simple mind: it makes one see nothing sinister about him, but it lends to the viewer an air of a certain objectivity and lack of judgmental sentiment as they watch the entirety of the porn world unfold around this character.
Overall, I recommend this film to everyone who can appreciate good film and has the stomach for sometimes rather edgy and racy material. |
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