Boogie Nights - L'altra Hollywood

Boogie Nights is an excellent picture. You don't have to have be a part of the whole 70's scene either to appreciate it. The title is very misleading to some who do not generally read reviews beforehand. This movie is an exhilerating piece on a late 70's-early 80's porn star. Yes, it sounds like a very simple plot and much gratutious sex. But it's so much more. While you may be thrown off by the violence and the sexuality Boogie Nights is nowhere near pointless. It features great acting all across the board-even Reynolds is very sympathetic. Some advice though, seeing this movie more than once is a good idea. It grows on you. This movie takes you to the deep down threshold of your heart. It shows you the rise of a porn star and the downhill spiral that follows it. Even in some of the sleaziest of characters can a human being be reached out to. Rent this one tonight - and who cares about all that talk about the use of prosthetics anyway. This is the pulp fiction of the 70's porn industry, "a low class subject made in a high class way".

It's kind of weird. I just watched There Will Be Blood and that was one of the more intense movie I have watched and I'm watching this and like holy s*** this director has range. A good fun entertainment movie.

It has the perfect casting when they have Mark Wahlberg playing at dumb young kid that is playing in a pornos movies. It's just perfect casting on that front and he delivers the dumb idiotic performance so goodly.

And how bad all of the actors are in the actual pornholes it just adds to it. It's just so fun everything about this movie is fun and then when it get tragic it's even more sad because you've seen the highs and the lows.

And showing this interesting time in the world of pornography is so interesting to see and they do it with such flares . It's just overwhelming. It's hard not to just want to be part of the parties even if they're gonna get Coke down of their mind.

Boogie Nights is full of surprises, nothing quite prepares one for it its soul. Yes, it does have soul, whilst tackling the tackiest of subject matter, with both a wry smile and respect. Brillantly cast and wonderful character development, the performances somehow combine the best of stage acting with improvisation within a cinema verite style.

The plot proved richer than I expected and the underlying themes are teased out quite profoundly as each "B grade" human being is brought, through crisis, into perspective.

A sociologist's dream case study, the film resonates the raw truth of what we all know about self-esteem, parental love and lack of it, attention/love deficit and its manifestation in adulthood, the desperate need to belong. Something for everyone here.. almost camouflaged as issues of untouchables and their separate milieu but of course they are universal.

The film works on a number of levels. The ironic loop is that the milieu portrayed exists only because of the voyeur, who happens to be watching the film...

Boogie Nights is non judgmental of its subject matter and characters, a rarity. It deserves every accolade it has achieved and more.

The first time I saw "Boogie Nights" in a theater, I walked out flabbergasted. I'd never been that affected by a movie since "Pulp Fiction" (and that's saying a lot). After being numbed by a decade's worth of stark, Kevin Smith-style indie banalities, I just wasn't used to seeing a movie that covered that much emotional and cultural ground. I saw it three more times in the theater, never getting bored with it. I own it today on video. I really can't say enough great things about this amazing movie. A movie which will no doubt be regarded as a classic in years to come.

Great filmmaking, a true masterpiece by a then young and hungry director with a boatload of influences. It's a wonderful story with colorful characters and excellent performances. It could've been a mundane and uninteresting affair but the movie has a secret weapon, comedy. A lot of the characters have this "dumb innocence" that makes the story so side-splitting funny and real. Mark Wahlberg and John Reilly have that "stupid guy" charm that results in so many laughs. The actors are aware of these funny personality gags and are self conscious of it, and that is what makes the drama work.