In my “There WIll Be Blood” thread, also written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, I was saying how much I love ***Boogie Nights.
This film did not grab me the frist time I saw it. Yes, I liked it…kinda. But over time, I’ve come to love it. Every time I see it I love it more. And I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, probably more, and I own the super-deluxe box version with every imaginable extra that I’ve watched multiple times.
As much as I hate to admit it, I know that a large part of the reason I love it so much is because so much of it is so familiar to me… grew up in LA/Valley in the 70’s, I’m in the sex industry, I know a lot of the locations… but there are other movies that I could say that about that don’t grab me like this one.
Some favorite moments include PSH: “I’m an idiot! An idiot!” fantastic performance!
The girls doing coke: let’s go for a walk, let’s never leave this room, will you be my mommy? Holy mother of god they HAD to be doing coke to get it so right.
The documentary about Dirk? PRICELESS!!! Utterly flawless.
Coming up with the name? The guys meeting for the first time at the pool party? This stuff is GOLDEN.
Totally with you. Didn’t love the movie when it first came out, but it is totally rewatchable and it gets better every time. Amazing cast, great direction. One of my favorite scenes is when William H. Macy’s character sees his wife having sex on the driveway or something, and the DP tries to talk to him about the shoot while the crowd is around his wife. It is so brilliantly arranged - Macy and the other guy in the forground, the wife and crowd out of focus in the background, and you can tell that Macy can’t pay attention to what the guy is saying, and the viewer can’t pay attention to what the guy is saying because of what is going on behind.
Also love the firecracker heist scene, especially that moment where wahlberg just stares off into space for a few minutes. A wonderful moment of inactivity.
Watch it every time it’s on TV (and that’s a lot). Fantastic, fantastic cast – I cannot think of a film with a more perfect and talented ensemble of actors. Gorgeous set, props and shots. Great soundtrack (especially Dirk’s vocal stylings). Way funnier than it had any right to be. Doesn’t drag even at 2+ hours.
I know it got noms for best screenplay and supporting actors (Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore), but frankly I think it deserved at least a nom for Best Picture and Best Director, and Mark Wahlberg deserved to both get nominated and to win. He was so perfect in a truly interesting role, he should have won based on that alone (rather than the ‘Wow I can’t believe someone from the Funky Bunch can act!’ factor).
PTA has taste, no question. Hell, he managed to get a genuinely interesting performance out of Tom Cruise! (Magnolia…absolutely my favorite thing about that movie)
No, you’re not alone. I love, love, love this movie too! I did not grow up in the 70s, and I’ve never had anything to do with the sex industry, but this movie still gets me. There is something so genuine about the performances and the way the story unfolds. This movie is really funny in some places, really awkward in other places, and the whole story has this dark cloud of heartbreak over it. I’ve seen it many times as well, and I notice something new every time I watch it.
I grew up in the 1970s, remember “porno chic” and had a porn star as a family friend (Jody Maxwell - renowned for her ability to sing while performing fellatio). It perfectly captured that shabby attempt at “class” that seemed to permeate the world of porn at the time.
I saw this movie 5 days after it came out. My GF and I went to some big weird/cool multiplex in San Jose (we lived in Santa Cruz) and the crowd was huge and loving the movie.
I had read quite a bit about the film, and although I loved it, and have watched it many times, I have to say that the big “reveal” end scene was and is among the worst I have ever seen in a major motion picture. It was unnecessary and poorly executed, IMO.
Unnecessary? Don’t you think people would have gone batshit if we didn’t get to see it?
FTR: every woman I’ve ever asked agrees that if we had a choice between diamond-cutter hard but a little smallish and horsecock that never really gets hard…we’ll take the cute little diamond cutter every single time. And that’s the problem with the horsecocks, for some reason they never really get hard. I’ve never seen a John Holmes film in which he gets fully erect, and it takes all the fun out of it.
A) The soundtrack is sublime and one of my favorite soundtracks ever, right up there with the “Summer of Sam” soundtrack.
B) It’s a perfect story arc. The first half of the movie, all the characters are sort of on an upswing. I can’t remember the exact song that’s playing at around the halfway point, but during and after that song, everything just turns to shit for every single character in the movie. Perfect juxtaposition.
I wish I could watch this film again, because Jeff Bridges makes me weak in the knees, especially all long hair and beard, but the John Goodman character made me SO uncomfortable I don’t think I could sit through it again.
It’s easily one of my favorite movies. I dig the rise and fall of Eddie Adams and company as a sort of twisted bildungsroman - perhaps only “twisted” because the lens is aimed at the 70s and 80s porno scene. It’s similar to *Goodfellas *in that area.
Boogie Nights is the film that convinced me there needs to be an Academy Award for Best Ensemble Cast.
I’ve always had a real sneaking admiration for this movie, and I’ve only seen it one time. I’ve always thought it was way better than it had to be. Makes me want to see it again!
Frequently I pretend to hold a gun in that totally wrong way they do, when they’re making the pretentious cop porn movie. I’m sure no one gets it, but it makes me laugh.
Mrs. Urquhart and I saw it in the theatre as well, not knowing what to expect from it. When the credits rolled, we still didn’t really know what to make of it.
At least 20 viewings later (we’re proud owners of the double-disc DVD as well), it’s absolutely one of our favorite movies. We drop lines from it at inappropriate moments all the time:
[ul]
[li]"(insert name here) is a man of many interests: film, poetry, kara-tay, …"[/li][li]“That’s (insert name here). He’s Chinese.”[/li][li]“We’re guaranteed a record deal – our stuff is that good.”[/li][/ul]
Each time I watch it, I enjoy Thomas Jane’s performance as Todd Parker a little bit more. His entrance (complete with screeching tires right before he walks into the yard) and his conversation with Reed Rothchild about Dirk’s Corvette is hilarious. The entire cast is simply great.
A colleague of mine and I were discussing it seven or eight years ago, and he made a very good point: it’s not about a group of people making pornos. It’s about family.