Boogie Nights
Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams, a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams' rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, "Dirk Diggler". Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams' dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.
CinemaSerf@Geronimo1967
Yikes, but was there fuss around this when it was released? A film about porn, yes, but a film about men in porn - and with the ribbed and toned "Marky Mark" too! What will we see? What will he show? I remember the general interest in this hitherto rather unsavoury topic was insatiable. Well, what we do get is a rather interesting and lively exposé of just how the porn industry might have worked in the late 1970s. Experienced producer "Horner" (Burt Reynolds) spots hunky waiter "Eddie" (Mark Wahlberg) in a restaurant and next thing, the young man is the hottest of properties. With the timeless moniker of "Dirk Diggler" (try finding that on PornHub!) he is soon a true star with money and girls and drugs galore. Fame is a fickle friend, however, and the writing is soon on the wall for our emotionally ill-equipped young man who never for a moment considers that this escalator can go down as well as up. This story is filled with engaging and enigmatic characters - ranging from the stoic "Amber Waves" (a cracking effort from Julianne Moore) who seems to try and instil a sense of proportion and responsibility to the gorgeously stereotypical "Reed Rothschild" (an unlikely casting, I thought, in John C. Reilly). It's Mark Wahlberg who proves to be the revelation here, though. He works quite naturally with the on-form, and entirely plausible, veteran Reynolds and for quite a while, their roller-coaster of sex and success is compelling and quite enjoyable to follow. Is anything real in that scene at the end? Well who knows - but 2½ hours peppered with some great disco just flew by in a cinema that was packed to the rafters.