Hot off the success of One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson is back on our watchlists with this 4K restoration and re-release of his 1997 classic, which, surprisingly given its stacked cast and bladder-testing 155-minute length, was only his second feature.
The story begins in 1977, and Marky Mark Wahlberg stars as high school dropout Eddie Adams, whose main asset in life is an extraordinarily large penis, along with great skill and stamina when it comes to using it. Attracting the attention of porn mogul Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds, who allegedly got on horribly with Anderson and fired his agent for recommending the job), Eddie renames himself Dirk Diggler and begins a high-flying career as a dirty movie star.
Diggler’s rise to fame, and subsequent flop into a worn-out low, marks the main thrust of the movie, while various stories following the ensemble cast add colour to the sprawling picture of this time and place. Everyone within the business finds their heydays are numbered – Horner tries to resist the dawn of home video, Amber (Julianne Moore) finds that her career choices make it difficult to ever see her kid again, and Buck (Don Cheadle) has many obstacles in his path to opening a stereo shop. There’s also a scene-stealing and career-defining turn from Heather Graham as Rollergirl, the porn star who never takes her skates off (everything else, though…).
It’s (like many of PTA’s later pictures) a meandering tale, but there’s so much going on at every point, and each scene is so meticulously crafted, that it never loses the attention (unlike some of PTA’s later pictures – looking at you, Inherent Vice). This isn’t a grim takedown of the porno industry, but an energetic and cheerfully satirical depiction of a gang of misfits trying to create something they can be proud of – and sometimes failing, but ultimately finding a family in the process. From this early point in his career, PTA shows a masterful ability to create characters who are messed-up and weird and often dumb, but layered and engaging and fun to spend time with. And that cast really is stacked; we’ve not even mentioned John C. Reilly William H Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, and the insane one-scene appearance from Alfred Molina…
Except for if you saw it on the big screen back in ’97, Boogie Nights has never looked better than on this new 4K version; the crisp image accentuates the warm, vibrant tones of the retro California setting.
The special features include two new American Cinemateque panels featuring PTA and John C Reilly, which are interesting but cover similar material to the two commentaries – one with PTA, one with multiple cast members – which are reused from previous Blu-ray and DVD releases. Other extras, all of which have been on previous versions, include the PTA-directed music video for Michael Penn’s Try, some extended footage featuring John C Reilly’s character, and almost half an hour of deleted scenes (as is usually the case, they were deleted for good reason, and aren’t really worth your time unless you’re a die hard fan).
BOOGIE NIGHTS is available now on 4K UHD, in standard and steelbook editions.
