BOOGIE NIGHTS
by Christian T. Escobar
It isn't often that I am amazed by a particular film. It isn't often that I
am amazed at the talent of the film's creator. So when I say I was amazed by
Boogie Nights, you best take my word for it. At 27 years of age,
Writer-Director-Producer Paul Thomas Anderson has done with his second film
what many filmmakers strive their entire lives to do: He's made an American
Classic. Using the late 70's adult film arena as a backdrop and filling the
screen with compelling characters colored with a pop-culture paintbrush,
Anderson makes a film that tells the same old story with fresh eyes and an
energy I haven't seen in years.
Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) is a doe-eyed busboy working in a disco
palace in Reseda, California during the polyester rage of 1977. The club is
the favorite watering hole of Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a silver haired
fellow with an icy stare and comforting smile. Jack would have you believe
he's a legitimate filmmaker, but what he really makes is hard-core porno
movies with his own little group of actors, actresses and crew people. One
night Jack approaches Eddie to find out what this kid is all about. It turns
out, Eddie has a craving, he wants to be a star and he wants it bad. In no
time at all, Eddie has a new name - Dirk Diggler - and is drawn into Jack's
small and close family of porn pros. He joins the group and bonds with them
all. There's the motherly porn queen, Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) who takes
young Dirk under her wing. Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly) is the brotherly
guy who develops a competitive and close relationship with Dirk. Buck Swope
(Don Cheadle), a 'brother' who dresses like a cowboy and dreams of one day
owning his own stereo shop. Rollergirl (Heather Graham) is a young girl who
lives in her skates and whose youthful vibrance is a perfect symbol of the
times. As for the crew, they're led by assistant director Little Bill
(William H. Macy) who just happens to have the unfortunate luck of finding
his wife (Nina Hartley) having sex with just about anybody she can find.
Scotty (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the lighting and gopher guy, is a sloppy man
who happens to have a crush on one of the porn stars. The one final guy in
the equation is the financier. A man named The Colonel (Robert Ridgely), who
has a penchant for young girls with cocaine addictions.
Dirk, with his good looks and rather large equipment, takes the porno
world by storm. He wins awards, he gets recognition, he gets money, he gets
the women and, for a time, stays modest and thankful. By the time the 70's
are coming to a close, Dirk and the gang are on top of the world. However,
there would be two obstacles standing in the way of everlasting happiness:
excess and videotape. As the 80's come to light, the group is thrown into
chaos as the world of sex, drugs and success cause some to become greedy and
egotistical and let the chips on their shoulders become boulders. The fall
from grace is not pretty. While Jack must fight to keep his 'artform' from
becoming a cheesy videotaped sex-a-thon, he must also try and keep his stable
from falling apart.
When filmmakers cast their film with not-quite-A-list actors it will
either be a huge success or a horrible failure. Like last year's Fargo,
Boogie Nights is a tremendous achievement in the casting department. Mark
Wahlberg, who was good in The Basketball Diaries, is fantastic as Eddie come
Dirk the Pornstar. The stages his character goes through are numerous, yet
you can follow each one in the lines of his face. When Burt Reynolds can make
me forget he's Burt Reynolds, I know he's pulled something special out of his
hat. He disappears into Jack Horner from the first scene and as hype would
have it, might well have resurrected his career. Julianne Moore draws
sympathy into a character who shouldn't deserve any and William H. Macy is
perfectly cast as the hapless husband who just can't seem to come out on top.
I'm not sure if the filmmakers had this kind of result in mind when they cast
all the characters, from the leads to the one-liners, but they sure as hell
must have been happy.
Boogie Nights opens up with a stellar tracking shot that goes
throughout the disco club introducing the regulars before it finally stops on
Wahlberg's face minutes later. It is a virtuoso shot and only one of many
such shots. This film is stuck together with beautiful photography provided
by Robert Elswit and commanded by the amazing eye of Paul Thomas Anderson.
There is also the music. The pop music score is brilliant, often not playing
over the scene, but blending into the scene to perfection. Then there is the
cherry on top, the art direction and costume design. In all it's campy style,
this film is beautiful to look at. From the clothes, to the hair, to the
ridiculous home decor, a 70's pop culture junkie will slobber over this film.
On a purely technical level, there hasn't been a film with this kind of
camera work, this kind of pop musical scoring, and this kind of cultural
persona since Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas.
If Paul Thomas Anderson, come early next year, does not receive a Best
Directing nod it will be one of the great Academy travesties. In only his
second film, (the very good, little scene Hard Eight being the first)
Anderson his catapulted himself up among the ranks of today's young
Independent filmmakers. However, unlike most of his peer's work, Anderson
keeps a low-profile and lets his work do the talking. He took an unsavory
part of American Pop Culture and metaphorically made a statement about the
American way and spirit. He could have concentrated on the pulpy areas of his
backdrop, but instead spent time developing characters that were not distant
or hard to understand. They are regular people with lives and problems and
dreams and not just sex-addicted pornographers. When Boogie Nights seems like
it is about to come to a close, Anderson keeps the cameras rolling and
delivers us into the characters lives at their most desperate hours. There is
something special about the way he portrays these people, who from the
outside would be labeled despicable and evil. Anderson never gives them fake,
movie qualities, instead he gives them human qualities. Boogie Nights is at
times very funny and at other times very disturbing, but is always very real
and very satisfying.