Any movie where I get to see Heather Graham naked is OK by me!
OK, on a more serious note: It is not the kind of movie I usually enjoy. I am rather shallow when it comes to movies and my only requirement is that I come away feeling good. This was not a feel-good movie.
But I did enjoy it - it was well-crafted, well-acted and had an interesting story.
But even with the lovely naked Heather I will not likely watch it again.
It’s kind of amazing that Paul Thomas Anderson was so young when he made this movie. He was only 27, yet had so much insight. The film was very well observed as to time and place as well, and I think it’s depiction of drug culture was was spot on.
Also pretty amazing was that Burt Reynolds somehow managed to pull of the impossible feat of playing a porn director without coming off as the least bit creepy or sleazy, and actually seeming caring and paternal.
A lot of it is the writing. PTA is a top notch writer. He’s really one of the most gifted filmmakers out there.
The Hangover, while a very funny movie, utterly wasted Heather Graham. She played a Stripper/Escort. Great, right? No. Total Heather Graham nakedness? One breast - and that only while preparing to feed a baby, a time when you are forbidden from appreciating the breast in question.
Bastards!
Boogie Nights also features the fantastic Michael Penn song, “Try.” (Or at least the video says it’s from the movie; I don’t remember the song in the film itself.) And a few of the cast members appear in the video, too.
Another vote here for the awesome soundtrack. The music was really well matched to the story, so much that when I hear some of those songs today (eg. Momma Told Me Not to Come) I immediately conjure up the scene from the film.
Loved it.
Not just the music itself but the transitions in the soundtrack are incredible. I don’t have the movie in front of me right now but I specifically remember in the party scene when the song “Spill The Wine” is playing, someone jumps into the pool and the camera follows him underwater and the motion of jumping into the water and the camera going underwater just fits perfectly with the crescendo of the music.
Yeah, Jessie’s Girl took on a previously unrealized charm for me after this movie. ALfred Molina!
All right, everybody, all together now:
"The heeeeeat wiiiiill rock you…
The heeeeeeat wiillll roll you…"
I think you’re talking about Andrew Gold’s “Lonely Boy”, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.
Count me in too. I love this movie. I heard about it when they were filming, and loved it the first time I saw it, but I also agree that it gets even better with multiple viewings. I saw it in the theater a few times, and it and LA Confidential were the first two DVDs we bought, when they first came out, before we even had a DVD machine.
I knew it was going to be special right from the beginning, with that great opening shot where the camera swoops into the nightclub and lingers on all the major characters.
Rollergirl is my favorite character, because she’s so sweet and fun, but damn, don’t piss her off or she’ll cause some damage with those skates.
I agree about the stellar ensemble cast. When I saw it, I recognized some of the actors, Burt Reynolds of course, Heather Graham from Twin Peaks and Drugstore Cowboy and William H. Macy from Fargo, but the movie put Julianne Moore, Luiz Guzman, John C. Reilley and Philip Baker Hall (I hadn’t yet seen Sydney), Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle, Ricky Jay, Melora Walters, and, of course, Mark Wahlberg on my radar. I might have seen them in other things but they didn’t register. With Boogie Nights they sure did.
I’m glad so many other people like it too.
Most of it’s been said. Classic film.
Interesting cinematography in places:
The dance scene at the nightclub. Most of it appeared to be in one continuous shot. And how about Heather Graham dancing on skates?!
The New Years scene where William Macy sees his wife with another guy (again), walks out to his car, gets his gun, loads it, walks back, etc. All one continuous take up until after the gunshots, I believe. That can’t be easy.
No, I think the song he’s talking about is “Compared To What”. That song begins directly after the end of the scene with the Dirk/Reed rock song being recorded in the studio, and accompanies a montage of the various characters in the film beginning their downward trajectories. (Dirk and Reed arguing with the recording studio guy, Rollergirl and Amber Waves doing cocaine, Buck Swope and his wife attempting to apply for a loan at the bank, etc.)
I love this film so much I even overlook things that would normally annoy me…like the idea that Buck could open a stereo store with one night’s proceeds from a donut shop. I had totally forgotten about Buck, and this is MY thread! He’s the heartbreaker of all the heartbreakers. And what a brilliant fucking character to begin with! A black guy with a thing for country and western??? Seriously?
I need to go watch it now…
I wish they would make a Boogie Nights-esque film about the porn industry in the 80s and 90s, because from what I’ve read, there is a vast difference between the decades.
Yeah, but this worked because they really, honestly, trying to make a “real God damn movie”. The ranks of porn in the 1970s was drawn from aspiring film and stage actors, while the 80s and 90s was drawn from aspiring feature dancers.
Now a great film could be made about the East coast porn industry earlier in the 70s. The New York actors - Sharon Mitchell, Samantha Fox, Veronica Hart, Ron Jeremy, and the great Georgina Spelvin - were genuine actors who had stage and film credits before they did porn. Or a film about making “Deep Throat” now that the director and star are safely deceased, and the mobsters who stole the most profitable film ever made from it’s director are pretty much out of business.
Love this movie!
Whenever I hear Sister Christian, I get the urge to light a firecracker. Really improved the song.
Definitely deserved more Academy recognition.
Love this movie. And although I haven’t seen it in years, I’m pretty sure that during the Macy/DP scene on the driveway, Macy is so freaked out by what his wife is doing that he says something to the DP like “Murray, my wife has a fucking ass in her cock and you’re asking me about the lighting- I can’t talk about it now!” I love that he’s so twisted he says “ass in her cock” instead of the other way around.
“Let me explain to you how this works: you give us the demos- we take the demos and get a record deal- then we can pay you for the demos! C’mon!”
It was a masterpiece. I remember those people from the 70s. Kinda sad too.
This is absolutely correct. I often wonder when watching it whether or not that was written or just a misspoke line that PTA decided to keep for this very reason.