Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, the script focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher, Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, chronicling his rise in the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s through his fall during the excesses of the 1980s. The film also features cameos by porn actresses Nina Hartley (as Little Bill's promiscuous wife) and Veronica Hart (as the custody hearing judge for Amber Waves' court case). The film was an expansion of Anderson's short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988)

Plot

In 1977, Eddie Adams is a high school dropout who lives with his father and alcoholic mother in Torrance, California. He works at a Los Angeles nightclub owned by Maurice Rodriguez, where he is discovered by porn director Jack Horner, who auditions him by watching him having sex with Rollergirl, a porn starlet who always wears skates. After a heated argument with his mother about his girlfriend and his sexual life, Adams runs away from home and moves in with Horner at his San Fernando Valley home. After agreeing to enter the world of pornography, he gives himself the screen name "Dirk Diggler", and becomes a star because of his good looks, youthful charisma, and extraordinarily large penis. His success allows him to buy a new house, an extensive wardrobe, and a "competition orange" Chevrolet Corvette. Dirk and his best friend/fellow star Reed Rothchild are featured in a series of successful action-themed porn films.

Assistant director Little Bill is married to a porn star who frequently embarrasses him by having sex with other men in public. 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.

Jack's porn empire struggles after his main source of funding, the Colonel, is imprisoned for possession of child pornography. His new financier, Floyd Gondolli, 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 men for her to have sex with while a crew tapes it. When a man recognizes Rollergirl as a former high school classmate, he insults both her and Jack. They beat him and leave him bleeding and half-conscious on the street.

Leading lady Amber Waves, who took Eddie under her wing when he joined Jack's stable of actors, finds herself in a custody battle with her former husband. The court determines she is an unfit mother due to her involvement in the porn industry, prior criminal record, and cocaine addiction.

Buck Swope marries fellow porn star Jessie St. Vincent, 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 holdup. The clerk, the thief, and an armed customer are killed in the crossfire. Buck escapes with the money and uses it to finance his store.

Dirk becomes addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine; consequently, he finds it increasingly difficult to achieve an erection, and he 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, a gay boom operator who is in love with Dirk. However, they squander their money, leaving themselves 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 attempt to scam drug dealer Rahad Jackson by selling him a half-kilo of baking soda disguised as cocaine. 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, Dirk tearfully reconciles with Jack. By 1985, Maurice opens a new club while Amber, Rollergirl, Reed, who has his own magic-porn show, and Dirk, are now living in Jack's house and they prepare to shoot a film while Buck and Jessie are visiting with their new-born baby. Dirk reassures himself in front of the mirror by pulling out his impressive penis before leaving to start shooting.

Cast

Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams ("Dirk Diggler")           

Julianne Moore as Maggie ("Amber Waves")

Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner

Don Cheadle as Buck Swope

John C. Reilly as Reed Rothchild

William H. Macy as "Little" Bill Thompson

Heather Graham as Brandi ("Rollergirl")

Luis Guzmán as Maurice Rodriguez

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Scotty J.

Philip Baker Hall as Floyd Gondolli

Alfred Molina as Rahad Jackson

Nicole Ari Parker as Becky Barnett

Nina Hartley as "Little" Bill's wife

Thomas Jane as Todd Parker

Melora Walters as Jessie St. Vincent

Robert Ridgely as The Colonel James

Michael Jace as Jerome

Ricky Jay as Kurt Longjohn

Joanna Gleason as Dirk's mother

Laurel Holloman as Sheryl Lynn

Michael Penn as Nick

Robert Downey Sr. as Burt