Monday 10 November 2014

Boogie Nights (1997)


Boogie Nights.....what a  fantastic movie. Now I would love to make this a one word review, but hey, that's not the way it goes (Unfortunately). But seriously, why hasn't anyone told me about it!! The minute I read the summary, I was hooked, I was like "Pause everything you're doing in life, and watch this movie.", no joke. In my opinion, Boogie Nights is the first movie to accurately give you an inside look at the excesses that pornographers engaged in the the 70's and 80's, drawing heavily from the likes of legendary pornographer John Holmes. The story is about high school dropout Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) who works as a dishwasher in a nightclub. One night, he is discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who decides to introduce Eddie to the porn industry. Eddie runs away from home and starts working for Jack using his new stage name "DIRK DIGGLER", probably one of the best fucking stage names ever!! So anyways, all is good until the 80's roll in and the excesses start to come.

This movie has guts man, I'll give it that. It dives into the world of pornography full force, flipping off anyone who mentions the word "taboo". It gives us a detailed look into the life of a successful pornographic actor during the "Golden Age" of porn. It has a fine balance between violence and comedy, which is something hard to achieve, and I realized that when I tried to categorize it; I was like "This isn't a comedy, nor is it an action, or a drama". It's one of those movies you can't really classify, no matter what IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes tell you. I like the symbolism in the film in a sense that it shows us that even a nobody, can become a somebody, given the right circumstances (and the right body parts). And wow man, Julianne Moore was pretty hot in the 90's, holy shit!

Eddie Adams aka Dirk Diggler
I also like how despite the fact that there's a number of subplots, the movie does such a job in not fucking up how they're presented, smooth transition, that's the way to go. And all the sub-plots eventually come together to form the whole plot of the movie in such harmony I couldn't believe it. And my god but Mark Wahlberg does such a good job portraying Dirk, you'd actually think he was a pornstar in his past life. At the beginning he gains so much as a result of entering the porn industry, you start thinking of actually becoming a pornstar, but that's just the beginning, what happens next ain't so pretty. Lets just say that Dirk Diggler rises, then falls on his face...hard.

Perfect Cast
But, despite all the coolness and the glitz and glamour that Boogie Nights has to offer, it still bears a very important message. Too much of anything is bad for you, don't dive into the world of excess cause you're bound to break a leg and drown. But beside all that serious stuff, Boogie Nights is an amazing movie, I mean it is one of my favorites. Because it's just funky and cool, you know, with a good balance of action for good measure, and an amazing plot. You'll appreciate the movie, because it is worth it, trust me. One complaint though, the run time, 2 hours and 35 minutes; that's a lot of film. Apart from that, I haven't got anything negative to say. I'd say the only people who would complain would be like hardcore overcaring, overprotective parents; and you know when THEY complain, 9 times out of 10, the movie is bound to be awesome.



"I'm a star. I am a big bright shining star."

Ahmed Almatrook 

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