BOOGIE NIGHTS (New Line - 1997) Starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Don Cheadle, Heather Graham Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson Produced by Lloyd Levin, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Lyons, Joanne Sellar Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Running time: 152 minutes
***1/2 (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: A-
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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Like its own opening shot, from out of the darkness BOOGIE NIGHTS triumphantly explodes upon the film scene with stunning authority and clarity, persuasively heralding its helmer Paul Thomas Anderson as a bonafide major talent. A sprawling epic set in the heart of the disco era and focused upon the ascension and decline of a troupe in the adult film industry, BOOGIE NIGHTS is an astonishingly ambitious feature film which is completely effective both as an utterly entertaining joyride and as a strikingly impressive piece of filmmaking.
The film follows a soft-spoken young man, Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) from Torrance, through his induction into the erotic picture business to stardom, and later, to a harrowingly precipitous drop. As BOOGIE NIGHTS opens, he's toiling as a dishwasher in a trendy San Fernando Valley nightclub, and living at home under the thumb of a tyrannical mother who denigrates him at every opportunity. Recruited by fatherly Jack Horner (a rejuvenated Burt Reynolds), a successful porn filmmaker, Eddie abandons his old life in favour of a new one as Dirk Diggler, pornstar. Wholeheartedly embraced by Jack's troupe, including the maternal Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), Buck Swope (Don Cheadle), Rollergirl (Heather Graham), Dirk and his "one special thing" are quickly propelled to the top of his field, fulfilling his mantra of being a "big bright shining star". His lack of discipline, however, incites a chain of circumstances which sees Dirk and his friends unravel as a new decade is ushered in.
The element of BOOGIE NIGHTS which literally commands attention is the bravura direction by Mr. Anderson, whose fascination and prowess with the camera is obvious. From the terrific tracking shot throughout a nightclub which opens the film and introduces the players through to the showy sequence in the camera follows a female partygoer diving into a pool, Mr. Anderson's accomplished command of the camera is without question. While novice directors often demonstrate an unfortunate lack of restraint in terms of flamboyant camerawork which ultimately proves to be aggravating, impertinent and self-congratulatory (case in point: Marc Rocco's unforgettable perpetual-motion helming of MURDER IN THE FIRST), in BOOGIE NIGHTS every zoom or pan by Mr. Anderson, be it slow and deliberate or energetically sharp, is purposeful and potent. It's a rarity and a delight to discover such a confidently assured work so early in a filmmaker's career -- BOOGIE NIGHTS is only his second feature film, following up his debut feature from earlier this year, HARD EIGHT -- and although it's somewhat derivative (his storytelling style is reminiscent of Robert Altman, while in terms of visuals he's clearly influenced by Martin Scorsese), at least he's borrowing from some of the best, and it's entirely effective within the context of this film.
While BOOGIE NIGHTS is astonishingly polished from a technical perspective, in terms of sheer entertainment value it's also rollicking good fun, with a wickedly deadpan sense of humour. The film perfectly captures the essence of the disco period in terms of music, clothes, hairstyles, dance, idioms, and culture, aided immeasurably by impeccable production design by Bob Ziembicki and costume design by Mark Bridges, and BOOGIE NIGHTS convincingly catapults the audience back to this recent, pre-AIDS-scare period in American history where uninhibited, free-wheeling lifestyles abounded. While much of the film's humour pertains to the characters' obliviousness of now-outdated aspects of their lives then prevalent in society -- a prime example is part-time salesman Buck Swope's demo of a stereo system with an eight-track tape, and inviting a prospective customer to get 'freaky deaky' with the music -- it's elicited with an undercurrent not of ridicule, but of wistful reminiscence, and some the throwback elements in the film are strangely wondrous. A giant ensemble disco dance production number in a nightclub is funny, to be sure, but oddly magical, and the sequence which lovingly explores Eddie/Dirk's bedroom, completely adorned with posters and elements of iconic 1970s figures (Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Tiegs, Bruce Lee) is breathtaking. Ably supported by a well-selected collection of period music (all of which purportedly came straight from Mr. Anderson's personal collection), there's a clear affection for the era in BOOGIE NIGHTS.
It's the period aspect and the playfully comic nostaligism of BOOGIE NIGHTS which has been played up in its marketing campaign in deference of the pornography element of the storyline; the film's promotional trailer markedly avoids any explicit reference to the adult film industry which unites its characters. After the debacle with 1996's Milos Forman film, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, another finely-crafted work which was knocked off the market prematurely due to controversy regarding its pornography-related storyline, the New Line marketing team faced a unique challenge with BOOGIE NIGHTS in terms of attempting to deemphasize the relatively risque erotic picture element of the story in order to increase salability to the general public.
However, while BOOGIE NIGHTS delves into the world of the adult film industry of two decades ago, it's hardly a lurid or seamy film -- given the subject matter, there's very little nudity, and virtually none of it can be construed as gratuitous -- and BOOGIE NIGHTS smartly depicts erotic filmmaking not as a hotbed of carnality, but simply as a business. The glimpses on the sets of Jack Horner's shoots reveal that while the films he makes are intended to titillate, there's a candid matter-of-factness in terms of sex; his cast and crew are professionals who are merely doing a job, and it's refreshing that the obvious cliches of depravity and sinful lechery often linked to dismissive portraits of adult filmmaking, such as coercion or debauchery, are avoided.
If anything, BOOGIE NIGHTS is more interested in the process of adult filmmaking than the adult films themselves. Jack Horner's dream is an honourable one -- he genuinely aspires to make a great film -- and to some degree BOOGIE NIGHTS is reminiscent of ED WOOD (albeit lacking a certain wistful innocence). In both films, the world of quickie low-budget filmmaking is explored, and both Jack Horner and the version of Ed Wood by Tim Burton, Scott Alexander, and Larry Karaszewski share similar mindsets -- Jack's retort of "There are shadows in light, baby" to his cinematographer's complaint about poor set lighting echoes back to Ed Wood's "It's not about the little details, it's about the big picture!" rant when it is pointed out that his graveyard set for PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE appears patently false. In BOOGIE NIGHTS and ED WOOD, the aspirations of the respective filmmakers' prove to be bemusing, not in their intentions -- there's nothing inherently silly in the goal of making an 'artistic' erotic picture -- but in the degree that they miss the mark. Much like the humour lacing ED WOOD, the laughs involving Jack Horner are double-edged; after viewing a hilarious excerpt from one of his latest films which hybridizes the James Bond and porn genres, when Jack breathes "This is the best work I've ever done", it's genuinely funny, but given his utter sincerity, also possesses a tinge of sadness.
Mr. Anderson is at this point clearly a greater talent as a director than a screenwriter. While BOOGIE NIGHTS shows great inventiveness in staging, there really isn't any clever dialogue in the film, though a valid point certainly can be made that none of the film's characters particularly lend themselves to thoughtful verbal exchanges; when one considers that the film's *protagonist* literally doesn't say a single insightful thing throughout the entire 152 minute running time, it's no wonder why the playfully inane "How much can you bench?" banter between Dirk and Reed constitutes one of the film's finest exchanges. And while Mr. Anderson creates a rich collection of fascinating characters, it's problematic that some of the the threads given to the film's characters are simply stale material -- Julianne Moore's child custody battle is fairly cliched stuff, better suited for a less risque and uninspired TV-movie version of her character's story, and far less interesting than the thread dealing with her woefully hackneyed filmmaking ambitions. Still, even if he doesn't always know what to do with his characters, Mr. Anderson most definitely captures their essences, and his resolutely nonjudgemental affection for them is infectious -- misguided, even aimless, hopelessly naive, self-destructive, insufferable: I loved them just the same.
In any case, it's hard to pick nits with a screenplay which contains one of the most audacious and inspired (and ultimately best-executed) scenes of the year: a scene where Dirk Diggler and Reed Rothchild are dragged along by their loose-cannon compadre to the home of drug baron Rahad Jackson (a mesmerizing Alfred Molina in an unforgettable performance, even if it's a small one) in a suicidal drug deal scam, only to find that the millionaire is a crazed eccentric (the part where he stops the deal to listen to the crescendo of Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" on his stereo system is sheer brilliance) flanked by an armed bodyguard. If this scene already wasn't tense enough with these elements, Mr. Anderson introduces a Chinese boy that wanders through the scene, who for no discernable reason is tossing firecrackers around the room, pushing the scene to a new, surreal level of delightful giddiness.
There are some other interesting touches in BOOGIE NIGHTS. Mr. Anderson recycles the use of long methodical chimes on the soundtrack from HARD EIGHT; here, it accompanies the violent intercut sequences which depict the prostration of various characters to frightening effect. Similarly, a painful scene where crew member Scotty J (Philip Seymour Hoffman) breaks down in tears in the driver's seat, sobbing "I'm so stupid" after being rebuffed by Dirk after an awkward but heartfelt advance is strikingly played out exactly as a later scene with Dirk in the driver's seat after a particularly tumultuous and traumatic evening.
BOOGIE NIGHTS is exceedingly well cast, and each of the actors rise to the occasion; the ensemble cast is uniformly good. While most of the acting accolades will no doubt go to Mr. Wahlberg (fulfilling upon the sparks of promise he demonstrated in some of his earlier films) and Mr. Reynolds (terrific as the father figure and stable anchor of the film, ringing true in every respect), a handful of other performances which might otherwise be overlooked deem mention.
Mr. Reilly demonstrates here, as he did for brief glimpses in Ulu Grosbard's GEORGIA, a genuine aptitude for comedy -- many of his scenes in BOOGIE NIGHTS are among the very funniest in the film. I'm not sure how much of his performance as Reed was scripted and how much was done on the spot, but he plays the quintessential second banana character to a tee. Mr. Reilly is the best part of the big disco dance production number, and it's wickedly funny to watch his Reed join in with Dirk after the fact in threatening the new stud on the block during a macho altercation. Worth the price of admission alone is the glimpse of him getting down in the recording studio while the Dirk character is laying down a numbingly bad (and dead-on period; it sure sounds like bad early 1980s to me) demo track "You Got The Touch" in a vain attempt at a musical career. Mr. Reilly plays his vacant character with utter conviction which is convincing and effective.
Ms. Graham, with her long dirty blonde hair, innocent demeanour, and huge hazel eyes, looks like a Disney animated heroine come to life -- or in this case, a Disney animated heroine who came to life, made a wrong turn, and ended up on the New Line lot in a film focused on the late 70s / early 80s adult film industry. Consequently, it's a bit incongruous to see this cheery sweet-faced starlet whizzing about the set on her roller skates, but in a scene where she's lounging in a limousine prowling the streets, garish red lipstick messily smeared on, giving the camera a hilariously pouty come-hither look, all one can do is gulp. Her role in the film sadly needs more fleshing out (err -- in a figurative sense) -- she's essentially a glorified extra -- but she does score impressively in her key scene which is unnerving in its sheer primal ferocity. (If only Mr. Anderson had filmed the scene so that we could actually see the expression of rage and anguish on her face, though!) And a cautionary tale for the strict and prudish: as a teen, Ms. Graham's parents forbade her to take a part in the twisted cult classic HEATHERS; since then, her most notable roles have been as a junkie (Gus Van Sant's DRUGSTORE COWBOY) and now a porn starlet. Draw your own conclusions.
Perhaps the most quietly touching performance in BOOGIE NIGHTS is that of Mr. Cheadle, who lends dignity to his role as a character in search of his identity, and whose quest is comically manifested by a series of changes in his sense of fashion. His relationship with his cheerfully supportive new wife Jessie St. Vincent (an interesting Melora Walters) is wholly compelling has genuine sweetness, and although his general longing for acceptance from others is perceptible, it's no more so than in the bank scene where his loan application to open a stereo store is rejected due to his background in the porn industry. While the scenario is familiar, the wounded look in Cheadle's eyes makes the scene unforgettable.
Luis Guzman's most famous work is possibly in Brian De Palma's CARLITO'S WAY, and here he plays a variation on the same character: Maurice T. Rodriguez is a hapless but good-natured nightclub owner who's a hanger-on to Jack's group, ingratiating himself into the clique and constantly hounding Jack, with little disguise made of his desperation, for a part in one of his erotic pictures. Jack's eventual acquiescence to Maurice's request leads to one of BOOGIE NIGHTS' biggest comic payoffs.
BOOGIE NIGHTS is a stunning achievement due to the virtuoso direction by Mr. Anderson, who immediately asserts his presence in the film industry as a presence of note with this work. Striking a fine balance between humour and drama, and exceptionally well-crafted, there's no doubt that BOOGIE NIGHTS is among the very best films of the year.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "Don't leave this girl alone with any handsome deaf-mutes Marty, that's my advice to you." - Parker Posey, THE HOUSE OF YES
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