Boogie Nights (1997)

Boogie Nights is a 1997 drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, and chronicles his rise and fall from the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s through the excess of the 1980s.

Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) is a high school dropout who lives with his father and alcoholic mother in Torrance, California. He works at a San Fernando Valley nightclub owned by Maurice Rodriguez (Luis Guzmán), where he is discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who auditions him by watching him having sex with "Rollergirl" (Heather Graham), a porn actress who always wears rollerskates. He gives himself the screen name Dirk Diggler, and becomes an instant star because of his extraordinarily large penis, good looks and youthful charisma. His success allows him to buy a new house, an extensive wardrobe, and his most prized possession: a "competition orange" Chevrolet Corvette. Dirk and his best friend/fellow porn star Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), who aspires to be a magician, star in a series of very successful porn/action films.

The film moves from one character to another, showing their attempts to make lives for themselves in the adult film industry and their failures when they leave it. Assistant director Little Bill (William H. Macy) is married to a blonde porn star (Nina Hartley) who frequently embarrasses him by having sex with other men in public and off-camera. At a New Year's Eve party at Jack's house marking the year 1980, he shoots both her and her lover, then turns the gun on himself in front of the guests. Jack's porn empire flounders after his main source of funding, The Colonel James (Robert Ridgely), is imprisoned for possession of child pornography. His new financier, Floyd Gondolli (Philip Baker Hall), insists on cutting costs by shooting on videotape, a format that Jack detests. He is also unhappy with the lack of scripts and character development in the projects Gondolli expects him to churn out as quickly as possible. One of these projects involves him and Rollergirl riding in a limousine searching for random strangers for her to have sex with while a crew tapes it. When a man they choose recognizes Rollergirl as a former high school classmate and subsequently insults both her and Jack, they beat him and leave him bleeding and half-conscious on the street.

Leading lady Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), who took Eddie under her wing when he joined Jack's stable of actors, finds herself in a custody battle with her former husband (John Doe). The court determines she is an unfit mother due to her involvement in the porn industry, her prior criminal record, and her cocaine addiction. Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) marries fellow porn star Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters), who shortly thereafter becomes pregnant. Because of his past, Buck is denied a bank loan to open a stereo equipment store. He stops at a donut shop and finds himself in the middle of a hold up, in which the clerk, the thief and an armed customer are killed in the crossfire. Buck escapes with the money the thief was trying to steal and uses it to finance his store.

Dirk becomes addicted to cocaine and methamphetamines, and as a result, he finds it increasingly difficult to achieve an erection, and falls into violent mood swings. After he has a falling out with Jack during a film shoot, he and Reed decide to pursue their dream of rock and roll stardom, a move supported by Scotty (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a gay boom operator who is in love with Dirk. However, they squander their money, leaving them unable to pay the recording studio for the demo tapes. Desperate for money, Dirk resorts to prostitution, but he is assaulted and robbed by a gang of thugs. Dirk, Reed, and their friend Todd (Thomas Jane) attempt to scam drug dealer Rahad Jackson (Alfred Molina) by selling him a half-kilo of baking soda disguised as cocaine for $5,000. The sale seems to have been executed smoothly, but Todd unexpectedly tries to rob Rahad, and is killed in the ensuing gunfight. Frightened by his brush with death, and weary of his wasteful existence, Dirk tearfully reconciles with Jack. The film ends with Amber, Rollergirl, and Dirk now living in Jack's house preparing to shoot a film.

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