Film Review : BOOGIE NIGHTS * * * *

Boogie Nights (1997)

CAST Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle, Melora Walters, William H. Macy, Robert Ridgeley, Phillip Baker Hall, Thomas Jane

DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson

Most people have a choice. A choice of what they want to do with their lives. In this masterpiece directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, you since that some of these people didn't have that luxury. Consequently, their lives are effected by what they do for a living. Pornography.

Boogie Nights depicts the lives of several young people who are in the pornography business in the San Fernando Valley in the late 70's and early 80's. We follow Eddie Adams, who in the begnning works as a busboy in a trendy Reseda restaraunt. He is approached by succesful porn filmmaker Jack Horner, played in oscar caliber fashion by the extremely underrated Burt Reynolds. Problems at home push Eddie in to the industry. He changes his name to Dirk Diggler and rises to the top very fast. Slowly his life falls apart, bit by bit. He becomes involved in drugs and he eventually has a falling out with Jack.

There are many characters in this film we follow. Buck, the black porn star who has an identity crisis. he wants to be a self made business man, selling stereos. We follow him closely. He gets turned down at a bank for (as the banker tells it) being in pornography. This is a shame. we follow Reed Rothchild, played by the always great John C. Reilly. He is Dirk's best friend and he travels down the same path as Dirk, drug addiction and running with the wrong crowd.

Surprisingly enough, this film has very little nudity in it. It's not about sex. Its about the effects of this industry on the people who live in it. You get to have alot of sex with very good looking women, yes. But you can never shake the consequences of the lifestyle. A truly depressing movie that possesses so much power and emotion as any movie could possess. A truly great film.