Boogie Nights

Review: My second box to check on the PTA-extravaganza is the director’s 1997 film set in the world of 70s adult film. I try to keep my reviews & whatnot family friendly which will probably be quite the challenge here. A 3x Oscar nominated film, this movie features a great ensemble (see below as my ‘High’), a quality soundtrack, a ton of great nostalgia, and a lot of inappropriate stuff. This features something that I enjoy in a movie, when actors play actors. This is even better because it’s really talented actors playing pretty bad actors. At one point, Mark Wahlberg is playing Eddie Adams, who goes by his stage name Dirk Diggler playing a fictional character named Brock Landers. Layers like an onion. The film is really high quality, which I feel will be the case with most of Anderson’s films. While I enjoyed my watch, I don’t think this will be one I revisit.

High: What an ensemble. Anderson’s first film really only featured four actors while this one features a ton of actors who all leave an impact in one way or another. Mark Wahlberg takes center stage and it makes you think back to the day in time where he was really doing a lot of different things as an actor. I really liked how he portrayed Dirk’s constant need for validation, continuously asking “Was that sexy?” & “Was that cool?” Returning from Anderson’s ‘Hard Eight’ is John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, & Philip Seymour Hoffman. The other cast members include Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Nicole Ari Parker, Luis Guzmán, Thomas Jane, Alfred Molina, & Robert Downey Sr.

Low: Phew, I don’t know. The film was a solid, enjoyable watch. I don’t think it was perfect, but I have a hard time pointing to a low. I’ll say your low is that you need to be careful who you watch this film in front of because it’s not family friendly. Sure, we’ll go with that.

Rating: 8/10