Boogie Nights (1997) – Film Review

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds
Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

Got to keep on dancing – boogie nights are always the best in town. Or so Heatwave’s 1977 hit suggests.

And while they certainly start out that way for the characters in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film that shares the song’s name, they come to realise the hard way that the fun has to stop sometime.

In 1988, Anderson made a short mockumentary called The Dirk Diggler Story starring Michael Stein as the titular well-endowed porn movie star. Nine years later, he expanded the story and ditched the mockumentary approach, the result being Boogie Nights.

This time, Mark Wahlberg plays Eddie Adams, a teenage pot-washer working at a nightclub where he’s spotted by Jack Horner, a famous adult movie director. Quickly realising he’s found a diamond in the rough, Horner takes Eddie under his wing, turning him into the hugely successful (in more ways than one) star of his films.

“Real acting chops”

Now known as Dirk Diggler, Eddie becomes a major star, even inputting his own ideas; alongside his friend Reed Rothchild, he creates a pair of secret agents who become the central characters in a series of films that have actual stories rather than simply being a series of X-rated vignettes.

The money rolls in, but with it comes temptation. After being introduced to cocaine, he becomes hooked, setting in motion a dangerous downward spiral.

Boogie Nights provided Wahlberg with his first opportunity to prove he had real acting chops, and he grabbed it with both hands; he’s touching as the young and naive Eddie, so we end up really rooting for him throughout, even after success goes to his head. He’s also very, very funny in all the right moments.

The ensemble cast is brilliant too. Burt Reynolds is wonderful as Horner, the patriarch of a group of misfits who form a sort of family both on and off set. Among them are Heather Graham as Rollergirl, another young star of the porn scene, Philip Seymour Hoffman as gay soundman Scotty, who has unrequited feelings for for Eddie, and William H Macy as the tragically cuckolded Little Bill.

“Multi-layered”

Wahlberg forms a strong double act with John C Reilly, who pops up as Reed Rothchild, but it’s Julianne Moore as Amber Waves who threatens to steal the entire show. The character keeps her former life a secret from those closest to her; she has two sons from a failed marriage and, unable to reconnect with them, pours her love and affection on the misfits and strays around her.

Don Cheadle, Philip Baker Hall, Thomas Jane, Alfred Molina and Luiz Guzman all appear too, while Michael Stein and Robert Ridgely, who starred in the original short film as Dirk and Horner, also have small roles (as an electronics store customer and The Colonel, who finances Horner’s movies, respectively).

Anderson manages to give all the actors their moment in the sun, the result being a multi-layered, Robert Altman-style, character-driven and enthralling film featuring people we really do end up caring about. Alright, so its near-the-knuckle scenes mean you’re probably not going to watch it with your family, but Boogie Nights has a genuinely heartwarming ending that will leave you smiling – and humming that famous tune.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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