1997   USA Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights Image Cover
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Director:Paul Thomas Anderson
Studio:New Line Home Video
Writer:Paul Thomas Anderson
IMDb Rating:7.9 (81,565 votes)
Awards:Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 19 nominations
Genre:Drama
Duration:155 min
Languages:English
IMDb:0118749
Amazon:0780621468
Search:NetflixYouTube
Paul Thomas Anderson  ...  (Director)
Paul Thomas Anderson  ...  (Writer)
 
Mark Wahlberg  ...  Eddie Adams - 'Dirk Diggler'
Burt Reynolds  ...  Jack Horner
John C. Reilly  ...  Reed Rothchild
Julianne Moore  ...  Amber Waves - Maggie
Heather Graham  ...  Brandy 'Rollergirl'
Don Cheadle  ...  Buck Swope
Luis Guzmán  ...  Maurice TT Rodriguez
Philip Seymour Hoffman  ...  Scotty J.
William H. Macy  ...  Little Bill
Thomas Jane  ...  Todd Parker
Melora Walters  ...  Jessie St. Vincent
Ricky Jay  ...  Kurt Longjohn
Robert Ridgely  ...  The Colonel James
Alfred Molina  ...  Rahad Jackson
Philip Baker Hall  ...  Floyd Gondolli
Rico Bueno  ...  Hot Traxx Waiter
Nicole Ari Parker  ...  Becky Barnett
Samson Barkhordarian  ...  Hot Traxx Chef
Nina Hartley  ...  Little Bill's Wife
Brad Braeden  ...  Big Stud
Joanna Gleason  ...  Dirk's Mother
Lawrence Hudd  ...  Dirk's Father
Robert Elswit  ...  Cinematographer
Summary: Even if the notorious 1970s porn-filmmaking milieu doesn't exactly turn you on, don't let it turn you off to this movie's extraordinary virtues, either. Boogie Nights is one of the key movies of the 1990s, and among the most ambitious and exuberantly alive American movies in years. It's also the breakthrough for an amazing new director, whose dazzling kaleidoscopic style here recalls the Robert Altman of Nashville and the Martin Scorsese of GoodFellas. Although loosely based on the sleazy life and times of real-life porn legend John Holmes, at heart it's a classic Hollywood rise-and-fall fable: a naive, good-looking young busboy is discovered in a San Fernando Valley disco by a famous motion picture producer, becomes a hotshot movie star, lives the high life, and then loses everything when he gets too big for his britches, succumbs to insobriety, and is left behind by new times and new technology. Of course, it ain't exactly A Star Is Born or Singin' in the Rain. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (in only his second feature!) puts his own affectionately sardonic twist on the old showbiz biopic formula: the ambitious upstart changes his name and achieves stardom in porno films as "Dirk Diggler." Instead of drinking to excess, he snorts cocaine (the classic drug of '70s hedonism); and it's the coming of home video (rather than talkies) that helps to dash his big-screen dreams. As for the britches ... well, the controversial "money shot" explains everything. And the cast is one of the great ensembles of the '90s, including Oscar nominees Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg (who really can act--from the waist up, too!), Heather Graham (as Rollergirl), William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, and Ricky Jay. --Jim Emerson


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