Boogie Nights [1997]

This epic, ambitious, satirical and bold-as-hell comedy-drama by Paul Thomas Anderson (his second feature following his decent debut film, Hard Eight), laced with satire, fun and warm nostalgia, recounts the story of a business that everyone loves to hate and yet the world can’t seem to be able to live without – the porn industry. The huge ensemble star cast comprising of a fine bunch of character actors (including Anderson regular John C. Reilly), wonderfully brings out of the closet the actual lives of porn stars. They might have turned their bodies into commodities and sex into mechanized rote, but they have their lives, dreams and heartbreaks as well. Filled with innuendoes, a very broad scope, elaborate shots, and a fluid narrative, this is a very engaging movie. Mark Wahlberg, the latest recruit thanks largely to his generous endowment, along with the motherly Julianne Moore, the cuckolded William H. Macy, the manic Heather Graham, the patriarchal Burt Raynolds, the overtly gay Phillip Seymour Hoffman et al, who’ve all been there and done that (pun intended), have managed to present a colourful, delirious, obsessive, and a continually evolving world, that, to the consumers, is filled with clichés, and provides the outside world equal amounts of attraction, pleasure, curiosity and rabid derision.





Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Genre: Comedy Drama/Social Satire/Ensemble Film
Language: English
Country: US