(Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)
There's a story that floats around Hollywood that nobody believed P.T. Anderson wanted to make a movie about porn. And on paper, that doesn't sound like the most successful of ideas. Anderson, a master of dramatic character studies, doesn't really seem like the right person to lead the audience on a trip through the gaudiness that was the LA porn scene in the late '70s to the mid-'80s. But that's just it: Anderson knocks it out of the park.
Boogie Nights is actually based on a short film Anderson made called The Rise and Fall of Dirk Diggler back in 1988. This was before anyone knew who he was, which makes the leap to the success of Boogie Nights all the more impressive.
Boogie Nights has arguably one of the best ensemble casts of the '90s, with Mark Whalberg as Dirk Diggler serving as our central character, but featuring out-of-this-world performances form Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, Luis Guzman, John C. Reilly, Don Cheadle, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alfred Molina. Perhaps the most incredible thing about this cast is that it didn't cause all the reels to erupt from the awesomeness.
A movie with this type of cast and a run-time of over 2 and 1/2 hours could feel bloated, but Anderson manages to keep the film moving along. There's never a moment that feels out of place, and, if anything, we wish we could spend more time learning about these characters than the 155 minutes we're allotted. But Boogie Nights makes ample use of its time.
Anderson's strongest weapon in his filmmaking arsenal is the use of the long take, which he uses with incredible skill. The long take forces the audience to pay attention to everything that's going on on-screen, lest we miss some important detail about the characters. Conversations fly by in rapid fire succession, making the audience an active participant in each scene, gliding through the scenes as if we too were one of the actors.
I think the most satisfying thing about Boogie Nights is that the whole film is simultaneously a serious drama and a laugh-out-loud comedy. Each character carries some pretty immense personal baggage, but it's impossible to not laugh at how dorky John C. Reilly is as Reed Rothchild, or Alfred Molina's obsession with the song "Jessie's Girl." Boogie Nights works because it never pulls too far in one direction. It is immensely satisfying to watch a film that works perfectly in all departments, and Boogie Nights goes above and beyond the call of duty.
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It's quickly becoming a problem for me that this list is composed primarily of really good movies because I've realized that I have trouble writing about movies (or things in general) that I like. It's really easy to rant and rave about movies that I think are terrible because I can find new and interesting ways to say "this sucks." It's very hard for me to find new and interesting ways to say "this is awesome." That being said, this was a very hard post to write. Because Boogie Nights is really awesome.
Boogie Nights is about porn. I just thought I'd let you all know, because until about 5 minutes before it started I had no idea. I suppose that's my fault because Burt Reynolds' mustache should have been a pretty powerful porn beacon, but I really didn't know. But, at least on the surface, that's what this movie is about. Porn. Lots and lots of porn. And lots and lots of those things that come with porn. Like big penises. Enter Mark Wahlberg.
Mark Wahlberg starts out the film as Eddie, a young man with...let's just say "unique talents." After quickly getting snatched up by renowned porn director Jack Horner (Reynolds), Eddie realizes that his humdrum name just won't cut it in the business of skin flicks. So he has a revelation, and tells Jack that when he closes his eyes he sees a name "in bright neon blue lights with a purple outline." That name is Dirk Diggler. And so the greatest porn star of the seventies is born.
I struggled with this blog because I didn't know where to focus, but when thinking about Eddie and the revelation he has about his new name I realized that names are really one of things that makes this film so great. There are lots of jokes about porn star names being explicit and raunchy and (in all honesty) pornographic, and there's the old game you play where you decide your porn name based on your first pet's name and the street you grew up on (incidentally, my porn name would be Scooter Summerwood, which is amazing), but there's never any pretense that porn stars have subtle names. But in Boogie Nights they do. Julianne Moore's character is simply named Amber Waves. Heather Graham plays Rollergirl. Burt Reynolds, though not a porn star, gets Jack Horner. And even the star, the king of porn in the film's universe, gets Dirk Diggler. The names are subtle. They are everything that the porn industry is notorious for not being. But that's kind of how Boogie Nights is, too. Sure there's an awful lot of sex and drugs and other adult situations, but the plot is extremely nuanced and deals more the emotional stress of the characters than pure raunchiness.
I like Boogie Nights. I like it a lot. It's dirty and sexual, but the characters are shockingly sympathetic, and it reminds the audience that porn stars are people, too. And that's alright by me.
Boogie Nights is about porn. I just thought I'd let you all know, because until about 5 minutes before it started I had no idea. I suppose that's my fault because Burt Reynolds' mustache should have been a pretty powerful porn beacon, but I really didn't know. But, at least on the surface, that's what this movie is about. Porn. Lots and lots of porn. And lots and lots of those things that come with porn. Like big penises. Enter Mark Wahlberg.
Mark Wahlberg starts out the film as Eddie, a young man with...let's just say "unique talents." After quickly getting snatched up by renowned porn director Jack Horner (Reynolds), Eddie realizes that his humdrum name just won't cut it in the business of skin flicks. So he has a revelation, and tells Jack that when he closes his eyes he sees a name "in bright neon blue lights with a purple outline." That name is Dirk Diggler. And so the greatest porn star of the seventies is born.
I struggled with this blog because I didn't know where to focus, but when thinking about Eddie and the revelation he has about his new name I realized that names are really one of things that makes this film so great. There are lots of jokes about porn star names being explicit and raunchy and (in all honesty) pornographic, and there's the old game you play where you decide your porn name based on your first pet's name and the street you grew up on (incidentally, my porn name would be Scooter Summerwood, which is amazing), but there's never any pretense that porn stars have subtle names. But in Boogie Nights they do. Julianne Moore's character is simply named Amber Waves. Heather Graham plays Rollergirl. Burt Reynolds, though not a porn star, gets Jack Horner. And even the star, the king of porn in the film's universe, gets Dirk Diggler. The names are subtle. They are everything that the porn industry is notorious for not being. But that's kind of how Boogie Nights is, too. Sure there's an awful lot of sex and drugs and other adult situations, but the plot is extremely nuanced and deals more the emotional stress of the characters than pure raunchiness.
I like Boogie Nights. I like it a lot. It's dirty and sexual, but the characters are shockingly sympathetic, and it reminds the audience that porn stars are people, too. And that's alright by me.
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