Boogie Nights: Classic or Dud

The devil has all the best poons iirc

ha just watching this again. great movie and posters itt saying it is a comedy are otm, it is a hilarious movie

one thing that struck me this time around, i find it hard to believe dirk diggler doesn't do coke until 1980. three years in the biz w/ this crew before he does coke?!!??

ha I'd never thought of that but now that you mention it that does seem... odd

also I was wrong here:

But the Scorsese films that PTA copped from for Boogie Nights (primarily Raging Bull and Goodfellas) are not broadly comic in the way Boogie Nights is.

cuz I laughed *a lot* when I recently got to see Goodfellas in a theatre. It's a different kind of funny tho, even if Scorsese and PTA both generally disdain the characters in their respective films (or at least see them as ridiculous)

yea goodfellas is also hilarious

also is there an authoritative list somewhere of films that start in a happy and glamorous 1970s that descend into darkness and dread once 1980 hits? (or 60s into 70s...)

that's gonna be a long list

feel like the 90s-00s transition would also easily fit that dramatic bill (Dubya and 9/11 were such a grim 1-2 punch) but I can't think of any films that have covered that era

ha I'd never thought of that but now that you mention it that does seem... odd

They really play up his innocence, all things considered. He's just a larky kid from the valley up for a little fun. It's not until things start to go bad that things go off the rails, so to speak.

Wahlberg has a few notable roles where he plays an innocent and it's always naaaah

(xpost) Not nearly as good, and it's a year out of sync, but Star 80 fits the '70s-'80s divide--brutally so. A lot of '60s-'70s examples, probably.

I'm curious about that film but it seems like such a grim watch, I haven't been able to bring myself to rent it

Yeah, I can't in any conscience recommend it. I like it more than most people, if "like" is the right word--there's a great roller-disco scene to "Sing Sing Sing," and Hemingway and Roberts are good--but it's nauseating at times.

Wahlberg has a few notable roles where he plays an innocent and it's always naaaah

he is fantastic in The Big Hit (and in this)

Oh I love it I just never buy it

I wish the Grantland oral history had more about Moore and Graham, how they felt about making the movie, how they felt about its success. Moore being uncomfortable is alluded to a couple times, it sounds like Graham maybe enjoyed things a bit more, which makes sense.

This PTA interview with a young excited brilliant director with a mouth full of pizza is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99jnnJQJF0Q

Obviously he was primarily an important, fearless filmmaker but Robert Downey Sr.'s cameo in Boogie Nights is one of the best and most quotable parts of one of the best and most quotable movies ever made. https://t.co/F7Pepq6GLh

— Nathan Rabin (@nathanrabin) July 7, 2021

When someone says that Boogie Nights is one of the best movies ever made, you look around for a dustbin to drop them in.

no way you could pick me up

13 inches is alot to get into a dustbin...

but so worth it

Wait that was Robert Downey, Sr.?

As the studio owner? Yes!

As many times as I've seen it, had no idea either.

You may own the tapes, I’ll grant you that…

Didn’t remember the music being “Compared to What” either.

Nerd that he is, in the end credits PTA gave Downey the "(a prince)" title Downey gave himself in Putney Swipe.

I love this movie, need to watch it again. It has so many good little bits. His most fun movie? (I still haven't watched Inherent Vice, I need to, so I don't know if it's more fun.)

A former manager of mine quoted the MP/YP line to death when telling someone in our group not to work hard on the problems of others so it lost a little luster. Still great in the movie!

Inherent Vice is more abstract imo and not as directly fun. Boogie Nights hints at having madcap moments, with the actors playing it straight but the music/direction letting you know it’s goofy

Inherent Vice was frustrating because it didn't quite capture the book but was also as close as would be possible to capturing the book

Positive I was watching a TV show the past year where someone used the MP/YP construction, and--in view of whatever show it was--it seemed like a clear reference. (Unless that saying pre-dates Boogie Nights; I'd never heard it.)

last time I saw this movie it gave me really weird nightmares and I don't know why

Both BN and IV are pretty cartoony, but imo Inherent Vice tries too hard and isn’t very funny, while Boogie Nights tries much, much too hard, but has funny moments, even if it’s too glib about its characters’ suffering, in that very 1990s post-Tarantino way

otm. yeah when i rewatched BN a few years ago and it felt a lot more broad and sitcom-y than i remembered, constantly telling you that its characters are idiots in a specific way that feels very of its time now. still funny imo.

i completely forgot that the mp/yp construction was in Boogie Nights. ive definitely heard it at various times over the years since and never clocked it as a BN reference. mindblowing if thats actually the coinage.

Boogie Nights has so many characters that are poorly hiding their personal issues and pain, with most of the tragedies played off as comedic as to not turn it into a different movie

That’s probably the through-line in a lot of PTA’s work, whether he’s cloaking tragedy with comedy or presenting genuinely harrowing things punctuated with a series of punchlines

I suppose that glibness about tragedy is also just a sign of a filmmaker in their 20s

It does allow some moments of real pain, particularly for Julianne Moore's character. But some things, like William H. Macy's character, are definitely played more kind of as pathetic punchlines.

imo Inherent Vice tries too hard and isn’t very funny

sigh

pretty much all of his films are very funny though

I think PTA absolutely views most of his own films as comedies

The final line of There Will Be Blood makes me crack up every time

I can't remember it, but my brain wants to say it's "nobody's perfect!"

I could’ve sworn it was “ain’t I stinker?”

I thought it was Slim Pickens saying “Yahooo!”
#OneThread

“I’M FINISHED!”

Our 70mm run of Paul Thomas Anderson's BOOGIE NIGHTS must end Thursday! Below are 📸 of the actual print you will see!

Don't miss the party of the summer. 🎟️: https://t.co/oXN2lvB3jY pic.twitter.com/xs6VIJ7fUj

— Film at Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) August 22, 2023

might hit this up, hardly remember the movie

saw it for the first time last year... it absolutely ruled as a big screen experience.

His name is...Carne Asada.

His partner's name is...Doctor Casino.

Those are great names!

"You know my reputation. 70 millimeters of tough load..."