By Fen Hsiao
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 4, 1997

Sex life

Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema Arizona Daily Wildcat The cast of "Boogie Nights" includes stars Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg (center).

Boogie Nights" is a film that looks at the pre-video "heyday" of porn and the wide range of characters behind it, while commenting on society's transition from the fun-spirited days of the 1970s to the self-indulgent narcissism of the 1980s. Mark Wahlberg stars as Dirk Diggler, a naive busboy who finds a way out of his abusive home life in the world of widescreen pornographic film.

Led by father figure/director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a "family" of actors rises to the top of the porn world on the popularity of the newcomer, Diggler, whose "gift" quickly guarantees stardom among this counter-culture world. Reynolds' character is constantly battling to make pornography a legitimate sector of moviemaking.

The characters in "Boogie Nights" are given depth and a sense of vulnerability through the impressive performances of supporting actresses like Julianne Moore and Heather Graham, who plays the part of Rollergirl, an underage veteran who leaves her roller-skates on even in the most inconvenient circumstances.

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is laudable for not taking the easy route in making a movie about porn. The film isn't preoccupied with showing gratuitous sex. In fact, the one behind-the-scenes sex shot is uncomfortable in its candor and depicts the actors as serious professionals there to conduct business, not as perverted pleasure-hounds. The film is also true to the time period and isn't immersed in fake breasts and misogynist abuse. Anderson allows the movie to correctly depict the trends and excessiveness of the '70s but avoids campiness. It's only when the movie progresses through to the '80s that this morally questionable lifestyle begins to take on a harder edge.

Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema Arizona Daily Wildcat Heather Graham stars as the underage porn actress, Rollergirl, in "Boogie Nights."

Wahlberg's portrayal of Diggler is actually touching as he stands in front of a bedroom mirror, mimicking Bruce Lee karate moves under posters of a bikini-clad Cheryl Tiegs. Later, when he is allowed artistic contribution to his movies, he creates a crime-fighting karate character who, incidentally, has lots of sex. The majority of the actors involved in the industry are seen as common people with individual dreams.

Diggler remains an innocent-kid figure until he is introduced to cocaine two years into his career. Anderson suggests that the drugs, not the porn, is the cause for the character's downfall. Burt Reynolds, as Horner, even lends a sense of morality to the picture when he abandons the money-backer of his movies after the man is arrested for child pornography.

The camera work in "Boogie Nights" is reminiscent of a Scorsese film and makes it seem sort of like a "Goodfellas" about porn. The running time of the film is also similar to one of Scorsese's, clocking in at more than two hours. However, because of Anderson's script (a compelling writing debut), as well as his directing, which elicits fine performances, "Boogie Nights" is probably the first movie about porn that even the most uptight person would be willing to indulge in.