THE AISLE SEAT - "BOOGIE NIGHTS"
by Mike McGranaghan
I was a child during the era of 1970's "porno chic," but I remember staring at the movie page in the newspaper and seeing advertisements for XXX movies such as Behind the Green Door and The Devil and Mrs. Jones. I used to stare at those ads in wonder; I knew that I was forbidden to see the movies, but I was too young to know why. Occasionally, I heard adults talking about them, but I still couldn't grasp what made these movies different from the ones I was allowed to see. Once I reached adolescence, I naturally understood what it was all about. By that time, the entire face of the porn industry had changed because of the advent of videocassettes. Today, it seems hard to believe that porn films ever played mainstream theaters and enjoyed a trendy popularity. Although I do not watch porn movies, I have always had an interest in the fast rise and sudden decline of those mysterious movies I wondered about as a boy.
I am apparently not alone, because 27-year old writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has made a stunning movie examining the porn industry from the mid-70's to the early 80's. It is called Boogie Nights, and it is both exhilarating and disturbing, a fast-paced epic about business, family, and self-worth. To call it a movie about pornography would be wrong; Anderson's interests go much deeper than that. This is a film about the decline of a business as well as the decline of one young man's life when he reaches for stardom in a world that chews up stars and spits them out rapidly.
Mark Wahlberg plays Eddie, a 17-year-old busboy in a nightclub frequented by adult film director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). Eddie believes that everyone has one particular talent in life, and his talent just happens to be 13 inches long. Horner - whose goal is to make a porn film where viewers actually care about the plot - offers the young man a small role in an upcoming production. Eddie, whose mother tells him he'll never amount to anything, agrees and enters a world unlike any he's ever known before. The first thing he does is to give himself a suitable porn name: Dirk Diggler.
Among Horner's cabal are Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), a grade-A porn star who also acts as unofficial den mother to the others; Rollergirl (Heather Graham), the star who never takes off her skates; Buck (Don Cheadle), an actor/stereo salesman who wears cowboy garb; Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), a co-star who becomes Dirk's best friend; and Little Bill (Fargo's William H. Macy), a production manager whose wife cheats on him openly. In this group, Eddie finds the accepting family he's never had.
Boogie Nights does a lot of things at once, yet it does them all well. We see Dirk's ascent in the industry, and his downfall as ego sets in. We see the prominence of drugs, as several characters lose themselves in a chemical blur. We see how the business changed as film went out and video came in. Anderson effectively captures the way drugs, egos, and violence were mainstays in this subculture. Essentially, pornography was - and is - a business of self-destruction. Many of its participants are drawn to it because they lack the belief that they can do anything else. What they ultimately find is as dangerous and unfulfilling as their previous lives were. However, for at least a brief moment, they can be stars.
I think this is what most drew me into Boogie Nights. Far from glamorizing pornography, Anderson shows how treacherous a world it can be. Although the key players develop an almost familial bond, there are hazards around every corner. People burn out fast. The film shows how, as the business changes uncontrollably, the characters find themselves ill-equipped to adapt to anything else. The most mesmerizing scene comes near the end when Dirk and Reed have been reduced to a drug-dealing scam. The scene (which runs almost a full 10 minutes) begins menacingly, gets worse, and ends in a shocking burst of violence. What is amazing is how the movie conveys the danger these characters find themselves in. Once they were stars, now they're petty drug dealers stuck in an amazingly deadly situation.
The performances in Boogie Nights are uniformly excellent. Wahlberg (the former rap star known as Marky Mark) gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Dirk Diggler. Dirk is our guide though the world of porn filmmaking, and Wahlberg captures both the innocence and the opportunism that drives his character. Julianne Moore is also superb as the tragic superstar. She has a genuine concern for the others, best evidenced in the way Amber soothes Dirk's nerves before he shoots his first sex scene (the way the characters discuss graphic sex in everyday business terms is hilarious). I also liked Burt Reynolds, who gives a dead-on performance as the sleaze king. Reynolds plays Horner as a serious businessman who just happens to love that his business is sex.
There are a lot of terrific subplots and themes running throughout the film, but there's no point divulging them here. Paul Thomas Anderson has done a masterful job of weaving a lot of elements together into a compelling and entertaining whole. He makes the porn world seem unreal, a sex-filled Oz whose inhabitants are unwanted anywhere else. Watching Boogie Nights reminded me of the first time I saw Pulp Fiction. Like Quentin Tarantino, Anderson is a filmmaker with a distinct storytelling style. He gives the movie a visual snap and an electrifying pace. It is clear from the opening moments that the director is someone with a unique vision.
I suspect that Boogie Nights will make some moviegoers wary because of the sex and violence. While admittedly somewhat graphic, the film is more cerebral than you might expect in its depiction of sexual matters. Anderson never tries to exploit sex - it's just part of the business he's exploring. The violence, while essential to the realism of the story, is more troubling, as screen violence always should be. To be honest, I found some of the violence borderline sickening; those who are exceptionally queasy about blood and gore should cover their eyes (I will not recommend that you avoid this excellent movie just because of a few acts of violence, though). This is a seriously-intentioned, intelligent work that makes several thoughtful points about the world it is depicting and the world in general.
The final scene of Boogie Nights is destined to be one of the most talked about movie moments of the decade. It sends you out of the theater thinking and debating. Paul Thomas Anderson has made one of the year's best films, a smart, provocative drama that has humor, intelligence, and humanity. Although it deals with a subject many will consider immoral, Boogie Nights has a strong moral focus. It is a cautionary tale I won't soon forget.
(
out of four)
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