Is It Worth the Watch?

I think a lot of people have avoided Boogie Nights because they think it’s about something other than it actually is. Released in 1997, the story focuses on a young man from an abusive family who escapes to Los Angeles where he takes a job as a performer in the adult film industry during the Golden Age of Porn, growing into a huge star. And I mean huge.

This remarkably engrossing film may be set in the world of sex workers, but its story focuses on the characters as they try to fit into the world in general. It’s often hysterically funny while taking a serious look at people desperately and futilely trying to connect. Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson does something unique here: he makes mundane and every-day activities, like choosing donuts at a bakery, important and compelling, while at the same time making sex and violence mundane and every-day.

The acting is spectacular, particularly Mark Wahlberg (as the hung … I mean … young man) and Burt Reynolds (as a powerful porn producer), both of whom brilliantly and subtly age over the 15 years of the storyline while creating believable and empathetic characters every step of the way. The rest of the cast is just as good, including Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and a remarkably memorable prostatic in the final scene.

Is It Worth The Watch? It’s a terrific film. Don’t let the porn setting put you off, this is a funny, perceptive and often unsettling drama about people who just want to be loved.

1997

155 minutes

Starring – Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Nina Hartley, Alfred Molina, Joanna Gleason

Director – Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay – Paul Thomas Anderson