Boogie Nights (1997)

Don't know...

I enjoy films that depict this epoch and this one relived this period quite and parts of it were very engaging. But I am against all forms of pornography and I do not support movies that show drugs, violence because these do not contribute to a better society and young people who see movies with violence and drugs, etc., get wrongly influenced. October 11, 2009

Terrific satire of late-'70s

I complained a lot about films in the '80s which were too stiff and self-conscious to pull off a period piece attempting to portray another decade.

So what a relief it was when the '90s started and it was apparent the new decade wouldn't have the same problem.

1997's BOOGIE NIGHTS, about the porn industry of the late-'70s, is terrific fun for any number of reasons: the casting, the production design, the "period" style of the thing... Burt Reynolds plays a slightly pathetic porno-director at the end of the grainy, earthy sex-on-celluloid era which is about to be overtaken by the videotaped, sanitized, twinky zone of the '80s... Other actors are noteable, including Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, Julianne Moore, etc. Oh, and how could one forget Philip Seymour Hoffman and his quivering boom-mike??

But Mark Wahlberg's casting makes the thing work, not simply because of his build (a lot of buff actors exist out there) but his demeanor--- his relaxed, lost, slightly forlorn, semi-arrogantly knuckle-headed vulnerability... he absolutely SCREAMS late-'70s teenager. (I'm not sure if Mr. Wahlberg has ever understood how "right" he got it with his performance).

The movie, naturally, is a bit of a parody of the time, yet within that spirit of parody, gets the disco era much, much more right than it does wrong. Period zeitgeist is always made up of more than just mere physicality, and BOOGIE NIGHTS, through whatever method, manages to convince you that 1977 is actually 1977. And that's no small praise.

There are some elements the film probably misses. When one recalls the late-'70s --- especially as it might relate to the sex/porn industry --- it's might be easy to ignore or forget its aspect of superlative sleaze; it was the time of early-Sex Pistols (before "real" punk got cleaned up in the '80s), CALIGULA, Studio 54 (no, not that terribly watered-down film with Ryan Phillippe years later) when a certain sexuality of degradation seemed to reach its apotheosis... If you side-step or miss that "sick" note of that time, you've almost missed the time... Admittedly, BOOGIE NIGHTS, deliberately or not, doesn't "get" that element; it's all a bit too giddy and innocent to do so (although that rings true, too). And yet I'm kind of glad it didn't go into that gutter; otherwise, the film would have likely slid into something else too unseemly, and the things it got right might have run the risk of being negated or overshadowed.

A good, delightfully silly picture. And it's pretty impressive that PT Anderson, so young at the time, could pull this off so correctly.

August 19, 2009

Boogie Nights

this is a great movie. To me it is a classic. Burt Reynolds was great. And of course Mark Walhberg is wonderful June 21, 2009

dvd won't play

This dvd won't play. I've tried on several different players. its not scratched up or anything it just doesn't play. June 3, 2009

Life in a dumb decade

If you were young in the seventies, the cultural references and the zeitgeist will make you laugh. Also the naive pretentiousness of the porn
pedelers is funny. There's also the drama of the ultimate emptiness of the life of most of the characters. Well rounded and enjoyable movie. April 28, 2009

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