Boogie Nights review

 Number 431 on the top 1000 films of all time is Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 period comedy-drama 'Boogie Nights'

Set in 1970's San Fransisco, Boogie Nights follows high-school dropout Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) who is scouted by porn producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds.) Eddie Adams soon becomes the biggest pornstar in the business, before it all comes down crashing down. Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly and Heather Graham all co-star.

I really didn't care for this film at all. It was long, tedious and repetitive. I understand it was about the Golden Age of Porn, so it would make sense that it looked like a seventies' porno. Unfortunately, it also had the acting and writing of a porn as well.

Much of this criticism is levied at Mark Wahlberg who was less than convincing as the main character. Granted Eddie Adams was never the most likeable protagonist, being obnoxious and arrogant, even before his career crashes and he gets hooked on drugs. But Wahlberg was not believable in the role. Even in the more emotional scenes, he resembled a crying tree.

The film's first half is slow and meandering where nothing happens. We get little hints of the lives these people live: fellow performer (Julianne Moore) has an estranged relationship with her children, porn producer Little Bill (William H. Macy) is being publicly cuckholded by his wife, but these segments were never taken seriously enough for me to care that much about. Little Bill's constant cuckholdry is largely played for laughs.

It is only in the film's second half, which explores the decline of the Golden-Age of porn in the eighties do things actually become interesting. We see how the negative stigma behind porn is affecting character's lives. Now a faded has-been, Eddie has become a coke addict, Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) is denied a business loan, because of his connections to the industry, and in one of the film's most shocking scenes, tired of being a cuck, Little Bill kills his wife and then himself in a murder-suicide. This was far more interesting, but I had almost lost interest at this point.

One thing I certainly did like was the soundtrack. Set firmly in the disco era, it featured some absolute classics of the time. Overall, I didn't like Boogie Nights. It was slow and boring. And I did not like Mark Wahlberg. In fact, I have yet to see him in anything I've liked. Boogie Nights was not the exception to the rule.