Boogie Nights: Classic or Dud

apparently The Colonel’s prisonmate was supposed to be Ron Jeremy but his scene got cut or they decided not to shoot it

there has to be more story there -Jeremy spent like a year w PTA taking him to porn shoots etc

In light of subsequent developments--not that anyone ever viewed Ron Jeremy as a paragon of virtue--a break for the film. (The scene of the Colonel and his cellmate is eerily similar to a clip that was circulating around then of Richard Speck and his cellmate.)

love Boogie Nights tbc and think it’s PTA’s most rewatchable / hangoutable until Licorice Pizza. his writer’s love for his horrible or damaging-fuckup characters remains remarkable across the decades, but the dense ensemble of Boogie and their own *decisions* to find community & family keeps them more directly loveable, despite the vast range of desperation and pain-causing across the crew.

totally forgot about Three Kings

VG if you haven’t seen The Big Hit I believe you will both thrill and lol to it. incredible perfs from Lou Diamond Phillips and Bokeem Woodbine too

deems it’s always a coinflip to recommend to but I’m 51% confident of enjoyment

pls as if i hadnt rented it and then caught it on multiple sky movies repeats the first time round

cheesy but very charming

ok i will give it a shot!

and sic i 100% agree with you re Boogie Nights having a similar hangout quality to Licorice Pizza. yr otm re PTA’s love for the characters - that is really key and probably the selling point for the whole exercise. there is definitely a clear wistfulness embedded in both movies, that sort of love for “running off and joining the circus” aspect of a found family is really present. also really leaning into characters who would otherwise be deeply unlikeable. Dirk, Rollergirl, Scotty; or Alana & Gary - in the hands of a different filmmaker who maybe put primacy on story over character, the fragility of any of them could easily become brittle and repellent; PTA nurtures it and makes them familiar, letting us see private moments of them scrutinizing or questioning themselves and it draws us in, helps the audience (sometimes) embrace them more and find some relatability buried in the brokenness

or it did for me

After the warmup of Sydney/Hard Eight he came out of the gate HARD on this one. Really loved it then and now - does such unexpected things either its characters and the bit parts and cameos are unforgettable. Obviously his most direct Scorsese homage but it’s earned, for me. Does several things that other PTA films do, but so so well. Also the joy of Dirk and Brock in the studio laying down the magic on those tapes is alltime.

ugh *with its characters*

Last week the Fighting in the War Room guys and Katie Walsh discussed Punch-Drunk Love, which I haven't watched since 2002 and plan to this weekend.

How appropriate that Boogie Nights came out at the same time as Jackie Brown, a film whose rep has increased over the years cuz it's also a hangout film.

I haven't watched Licorice Pizza since December '21. It's on Amazon Prime fwiw.

I recently rewatched PDL and was kind of shocked by how much I liked it. All the mid2000s tweeness I was afraid would turn me off now didn’t bother me at all. Hector Guzman is amazingly funny. And a great PSH performance

I didn't dislike PDL when I saw it, but even after liking Boogie Nights so much when it was new, I was starting to think of him as a gimmick-driven filmmaker (a rambling anti-epic with a WTF ending, a drama starring Adam Sandler). There Will Be Blood struck me as a maturation.

movie is an all-timer just for Michael Penn’s “Livin’ Thing” story.

I found this pretty stilted when I rewatched it somewhat recently. That charming hangout energy is undercut by the more grandiose Scorsese-ness imo. I never saw this on the big screen though

Punch Drunk Love is great! But ignore me, I’m the one who likes Magnolia and didn’t like Phantom Thread.

I love Magnolia and the haters are dead inside.

Still haven’t seen Phantom Thread but I’ve loved everything he’s done except Inherent Vice which refused to adhere to me.

i havent watched Magnolia in a long time, initially i couldnt get past the offputtingness of Cruises character and i guess i kinda took it to heart

def need to revisit

i like everything else pretty much so Magnolia is kind if a weird blindspot for me

https://i.imgur.com/si7W1AL.gif

I think Magnolia is great, or at least has enough greatness in it (especially the performances) to balance out whatever might not be great about it as a whole.

Loved Boogie Nights in the theater, one of the all-time great openings, up there with Miami Vice for sudden impact.

magnolia overwrought
punch drunk love over awkward
phantom thread a masterpiece
inherent vice one of my favourite of the decade

Boogie Nights, Licorice Pizza and Inherent Vice are my top shelf, maybe Master too
I love Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood but I dont really revist them?
Need to rewatch Punch Drunk Love, mighy give that a whirl this week

I think Magnolia is great, or at least has enough greatness in it (especially the performances) to balance out whatever might not be great about it as a whole.

^^ this

ilx already did:
poll thomas anderson
poll thomas anderson 2

maybe it's time for PTA poll #3. posters here seem bent on ranking his whole career to date.

Maybe wait until the new one comes out?

posters here seem bent on ranking his whole career to date.

Law of The Andersons: Every discussion of PT or Wes must be derailed by unasked for canon rankings.

I can rewatch TWBB pretty easily, but I have yet to revisit Phantom Thread. Not because I disliked it, but because seeing in in the theater was a strong tonic and I'm still appreciating my solitary viewing.

this may be an unpopular opinion but I find Reilly’s character oddly thin and a bit of a cypher; like the memorable things about him are what Reilly himself brings, and theres great moments & funny bits but as a character I feel like Reed fits in the least with everyone else? idk

(in Boogie Nights)

Love Reed Rothchild, but he's a total sycophant--to Dirk, to Jack, to Todd Parker.

yeah maybe thats what i’m getting

Have you ever seen De Palma's Casualties of Wars? He's very similar there--he just wants to be one of the guys and go along with whatever everyone else is doing (which, in De Palma's film, is horrendous).

I saw Boogie Nights at a theater in Puebla, Mexico. Or maybe Mexico City. But it was pretty strange because when I would be cracking up, nobody else was laughing, whereas the audience was dying of laughter anytime Phillip Seymour Hoffman was onscreen, I presume because they were used to gay men being portrayed as clowns.

I haven’t seen every PTA movie but this is unquestionably my favorite of what I’ve seen.

*checks Wikipedia*

So I’ve only seen five of his movies:

Boogie Nights
Magnolia
Punch Drunk Love
The Master
Inherent Vice

Have you ever seen De Palma's Casualties of Wars? He's very similar there--he just wants to be one of the guys and go along with whatever everyone else is doing (which, in De Palma's film, is horrendous).

― clemenza, Tuesday, August 26, 2025 5:55 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Brian De Palma is in a room with studio executives. On a whiteboard, he writes "CASUALTIES OF WAR." Then, he adds an "S," which he crosses with two vertical lines.

🤣

Admit it, this imaginary scene would become funnier if De Palma then drew dollar signs on each cheek with a Sharpie, then crossed his arms and glared around the room

Unquestionably mine too, Raymond, and I always love hearing that.

Posted in my FB tennis group a couple of weeks ago (pertaining to a trophy on loan): "Maybe you could see what a modification would cost?"

I can't hear that word without thinking of Don Cheadle and the "TK-421 modification." He approaches comic genius in that scene: "...which, uh, kicks it up another, I don't know, maybe three or four, um, quads per channel, you know. But that's really--that's technical talk. That doesn't really concern you."

I've gotta start using that out in the world: "That's technical talk. That doesn't really concern you."

PTA's commentary for this film is great because pretty much the entire film cracks him up, especially anything involving Reilly.

this is 1 of my fav films.. the most recent time i caught some of it on cable I was really affected by how dark it gets from little bills murder/suicide into the 80s.. i am maybe getting a little soft as i age and not saying that segment incredibly well done, actually i think thats why its so affecting, but it put me off a bit, not a criticism more just my experience

fond memory of walking out of this in 1997, two young girls behind me, presumably in response to the final shot, disappointed: "that was it???"

absolutely my favorite movie as a budding teen cinephile for its truly excellent scorsese-pastiche qualities--transposing goodfellas onto pornographers in the valley has a lot more going for it than you'd expect, and the "happy" ending of chosen family, etc is sweetly uncynical.

all to say im not inclined to condescend to the "whizz-bang" precociousness of it all, but actually find a lot empathy being expressed through PTA exorcising his own awkwardness through his characters.

You could've heard a pin drop in the theatre during the final scene when I saw the film in '97. I still remember the two middle aged gay men sitting in front of me turning to each other with a look of "how about that?!"

I still remember being reeled in by the trailer, but what I was hoping for was probably something closer to a Corman-esque film with a great soundtrack. I'm pretty sure I wasn't expecting anything as epic or as complex (I would argue, not everyone would) as what materialized--as much Nashville as Scorsese.

I haven't actually seen it in years and years, but I do remember "Boogie Nights" as a virtuoso work, as self-assured and show-offy and ambitious/audacious as, say, young Spielberg (albeit adjusted to the same everything-goes raised-on-VHS era that begat Tarantino). It's been interesting to watch Anderson come into his own, even if the products of that maturation are ultimately kind of unclassifiable, imo. Some of the most distinctive bits of "Boogie Nights" he borrowed from other places (which lends it a lot of its precociousness), but much of his subsequent work I find harder to place as echoes of those once obvious/blatant influences. I haven't seen it in eons either, but "Punch Drunk Love" at the time seemed like an intentionally break. "Look, I can work in other modes, too!" Iirc Anderson may have even said or implied he set that movie up as a personal change-of-pace challenge.

I guess this PTA "Exhausted" commentary was on the "Boogie Nights" laserdisc, but was discarded from subsequent re-releases. It's on youtube and edited/censored, but still pretty NSFW, for lots of reasons. Still, sort of an interesting artifact, I can see why he didn't want it on other DVDs. He sounds like a kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keOE9xuPzQg

ooh, thanks for sharing Josh!