‘Boogie Nights’
From the very first shot of Boogie Nights, you know you’re about to watch something special. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s sophomore film, released in 1997, opens with a long tracking shot that takes viewers inside a nightclub with Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), changing perspective as the camera moves around the club until Jack makes eye contact with busboy Eddie (Mark Wahlberg)… and we’re off. Boogie Nights is about the Golden Age of Porn in the late 1970s, and Jack, a porn filmmaker, wants to make Eddie a star — something that is, it turns out, incredibly easy to do. As Eddie from Torrance becomes porn star Dirk Diggler, we’re introduced to a stellar ensemble of actors and film crew, including a standout supporting performance from the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman as boom mic operator Scotty J, and a single scene featuring Alfred Molina that’s as hilarious as it is terrifying. There are points where Boogie Nights feels like two different movies wrapped into a two-and-a-half hour package; about halfway through, the tone shift practically punches you in the face, but this movie is, after all, about Dirk Diggler’s rise and fall. Boogie Nights simply wouldn’t be Boogie Nights without both halves of that.