Boogie Nights is a film about a tight knit group of people who film pornography in California from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. I postponed watching Boogie Nights for a while because I’m one of the rare people who has no interest in porn so a story about the porn industry is not appealing. I am committed to watching all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies (at home, not in the theater because hedoes not need my money-see my review of The Master) so I knew that I would eventually watch Boogie Nights.
Boogie Nights feels less like a Paul Thomas Anderson film because the themes don’t feel as epic or philosophical as his later films. Boogie Nights borrows heavily from Martin Scorcese’s film style, particularly Goodfellas, which isn’t a bad thing, just more obvious, especially since Boogie Nights deals with similar themes as Scorsese’s films that look back romantically at the cinematic past. Boogie Nights feels more like a film about the demise of the classic film era’s ambitions to the practicalities of video and how that transition eroded relationships and lives.
As the industry has to adapt to reality and awaken from its dream of glory and respect, the porn stars have to confront life outside their circle and realize that they are treated with less respect and must face their own shortcomings. They initially embark on their careers naked and unashamed and show nothing but concern and love for each other with one foreboding exception, but with the introduction of the forbidden fruit (drugs), they become discontent, more egotistical, realize how short they have fallen and how far they are from their original ambitions. In the end, Anderson does not have the heart to continue breaking his characters’ hearts and goes to fairy tale lengths for his characters to avoid obvious pitfalls such as AIDS or drug overdoses, but arranges for his characters to come together again as a real family.

SPOILERS

…..a real family of severely dysfunctional people. The “mother” sleeps with her children and introduces them to drugs. Two of the porn stars are younger than eighteen when they begin their career so even though the “father” expresses disgust at a financier who got caught with kiddie porn, he is basically a producer of kiddie porn even though the underage stars consent. I get that they accept each other whereas the outside world doesn’t and is beyond rude and hypocritical, but even through Anderson’s rose-colored glasses, this isn’t a healthy environment.