Fantastic!

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

When this film was released there was a lot of viewers who didn't understand what the purpose was. Instead of purpose , the viewer is advised to just watch the story unfold because there is stellar deliverance from many of the actors here e.g. Julianne Moore as an aging B movie actress, William H. Macy as the obsessed husband , Burt Reynolds as the sleazy producer. As a 70s child, I have a deep acceptance that the rules were not that defined and there's this transition from the flower power to the hippie era where the borders of sex are oftentimes too open and too easy to abuse. There is escapism to easy money but at the same time aspiration to make it better. Philip Seymour Hoffman is true to form as member of the film crew who lusts after Dirk Diggler ( Mark Wahlberg) . An entertaining film with sublime life lessons and heart-poking moments.

Being a child of the 70's i could really appreciate this film about excesses in the entertainment industry and all of it's bonuses that came with that.So if you ever felt like going back to the 70's or experience what it was like in the 70's this is a film that will do it for ya.Mark Wahlberg was amazing,his portrayal of a 70's porn star was right on baby,i have always found it difficult for directors to capture the true essence of what life was like back in the 70's without the characters becoming cartoon like and unbelievable to the audience,but the director managed to make them all believable,being someone who grew up in the 70's i can't believe we lived,dressed and acted that way,the story-line was simple but so was the 70's,the conflicts were the way i remembered them, between parents and their teenagers etc...so if you want to experience the 70's all over again or would like to see what the big deal was about that your parents lived through,buy this movie,eat your popcorn and just have a groovy night all over again.

Boogie Nights is a very good drama about the porn industry. Paul Thomas Anderson did a very good job directing and writing. It is very well shot, particularly the costumes and music. It is fast moving the story never lags. It has wonderful script. It uses multiple characters with different personalities and motivations. It shows the industry from many points of view. I like that he didn't hold back on the drug and sex scenes it gave it a raw authentic look. It has excellent performances by Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, and Julianne Moore. It also has a wonderful supporting cast with wonderful performances by John C Reilly, William H Macy, Don Cheadle, Heather Graham, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and many others. Boogie Nights is not a movie for everyone do to the rough nature and content. However it is one of Paul Thomas Andersons best movies, and one of the best dramas from the 1990's. I have seen it several times over the years, and I enjoy it and get more impressed with it each time. It is very good.

Paul Thomas Anderson is somewhat of a frustration. He is a director with obvious talent but his films seem to have a very hollow center and feel more fragmentary than a complete film. Boogie Nights has a great energy and superficially present the early days of the adult entertainment industry. It is very loosely based on the career of John Holmes but does not really get into the darker aspects of his story when he was still making porn films while knowing that he was infected with the AIDS virus and probably infecting his unaware co stars. Like The Master Anderson really never goes too deep into the motivations of his characters and seems to focus on the more lurid aspects, wallowing in the excesses of the decade. There are plenty of great performances in the film and make it worth re watching periodically. The most sympathetic character is played Don Cheadle but I like the little family that forms amongst Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, and Mark Walberg is genuinely sweet at times. But the excesses the era and the industry they are in cannot be entirely kept at bay and sets up the third act downward spiral. The soundtrack is spectacular and is a great sampler of the 70's but can be a bit overbearing at times in the course of the film, jumping from one song and going right into another...and then another. It is like a juke box that someone pumped a sack full of quarters into and you just want a little quiet time. I recommend to anyone interested in the subject to read a book called The Other Hollywood which expands on a lot of the subjects that Boogie Nights covers but with much more detail and insight into the darker aspects of adult pornography industry. Boogie Nights is flawed but has ambition.