Starting from the excesses of the late 70s, and crashing into the hangover that was the early 80s, Boogie Nights refuses to shy away from the troubling aspects in the porn industry of the time. Romantised debauchery gives way to consequences. Careers are destroyed, people die, as others plunge into their addictions, still others find that they cannot hide their personal demons. A particularly telling moment is during the 1980 New Year's Eve party scene when a producer stops by to convince Burt Reynolds to shift his operation from film to video. With him are four people that he claims are "the future of the business.". The fact that they look like heroin addict runaways, explains why porn in the 80s seemed to be trapped in a bellbottomed, big chained, hairy chested, Disco time warp. No one wanted to admit to that "future".

This would all be tedious, if it weren't for the strong characterizations all around. Every single person from the gay soundman to the actor who just wants to run his own stereo store to the porn star battling a child custody case; has a story into which you are immediately and totally engaged. This is both a strength and weakness, however, since at two and a half hours, there is still not enough time to fully develop every story, and you are left wondering what happens to many of the characters.

At the center of the story is the Mark Wallberg's character Erik or as he later changes his name--Dirk Diggler. As a naive bus boy he is approached by Burt Reynold's porn director character to star in adult films. Realizing early that the only thing he does well is sex, he runs away from his emotionally abusive home and lives the good life for awhile. Amidst an orgy of awards, new cars, sex and cocaine his tragic flaw is his inability to recognize when his life is being derailed or to admit to personal responsibility in that decline. Following the Greek Tragic model, he must plunge into a nasty unproductive life of bad drug deals and hopeless attempts at a music career, before realizing his own flaws. At first he is pathetic and funny, but as the movie progresses the tragedy of his life is fully fleshed out. He is still pathetic, but you are no longer laughing. One audience member complained that Dirk is too down-and-out for too long, but I would argue that that is a strength. It would be cheapened if the Dirk character simply plunged into addiction and pathos and then recovered easily. For the story to retain its full effect, there had to be a sense in there that Dirk would never recover from his problems.

Besides strong acting, and great writing, the cinematography is brilliant. At times, it seems as if the camera never stops moving. There are tracking shots that go on following one character and then another without break for minutes. This is Paradise to anyone sick of the MTV aesthetic of fast, sudden cuts. Seventies culture is captured in all its tacky glory.

With this movie and others, such as The People vs. Larry Flint, pornography is the new cool subject matter for filmmakers. While this trend may herald the final nail in the coffin of the Dworkin/MacKinnon anti-porn juggernaut, it has potential to become just as hackneyed as the Disaster movie genre. When every other film at the video store is the true story of a pornographer, this will still be the movie by which others are compared.