Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights is a 1997 American period drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of adult films, chronicling his rise in the Golden Age of P*rn of the 1970s through to his fall during the excesses of the 1980s. The film is an expansion of Anderson's mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), and stars Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Heather Graham.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 1997 and was theatrically released on October 10, 1997, garnering critical praise. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Anderson, Best Supporting Actress for Moore and Best Supporting Actor for Reynolds. The film's soundtrack has also received acclaim.

Plot
In 1977, Eddie Adams is a high-school dropout living with his stepfather and emotionally abusive mother in Torrance, California. He works at the Reseda nightclub owned by Maurice Rodriguez, where he meets adult filmmaker Jack Horner. Jack auditions him by watching him have s*x with Rollergirl, an adult starlet who always wears skates. After arguing with his mother about his girlfriend and s*x life, Adams moves in with Horner at his San Fernando Valley home. Adams gives himself the screen name "Dirk Diggler" and becomes a star because of his good looks, youthful charisma, and unusually large p*nis. His success allows him to buy a new house, an extensive wardrobe, and a "competition orange" 1977 Chevrolet Corvette. With friend and fellow p*rn star Reed Rothchild, Dirk pitches a series of successful action-themed p*rn films. Dirk works and socializes with others from the p*rn industry, and they live carefree lifestyles in the late 1970s disco era. That changes at a New Year's Eve party at Horner's house marking the year 1980 when assistant director Little Bill Thompson discovers his wife having s*x with another man. Bill, tired of being repeatedly cuckolded by his wife, shoots them both dead, and kills himself. Dirk also does c*caine for the first time at the party, foreshadowing his eventual downward spiral.

Dirk and Reed begin using cocaine on a regular basis. Due to Dirk's drug use, he finds it increasingly difficult to achieve an er*ction, falls into violent mood swings, and becomes upset with Johnny Doe, a new leading man Jack has recruited. In 1983, after arguing with Jack, Dirk is fired and takes off with Reed to start a music career along with Scotty, a boom operator who is in love with Dirk. Jack rejects business overtures from Floyd Gondolli, a theater magnate in San Diego and San Francisco, who insists on cutting costs by shooting on videotape because Jack believes that video will diminish the quality of his films. After his friend and financier, Colonel James, is imprisoned for possession of child p*rnography, Jack works with Gondolli, becoming disillusioned with the projects he expects him to churn out. One of these projects involves Jack and Rollergirl riding in a limousine, searching for random men for her to have s*x with while being taped by a crew. When one man recognizes Rollergirl as a former high-school classmate, he insults her and Jack, who attacks the man, leaving him injured on the sidewalk as the crew drives off.

Leading lady Amber Waves finds herself in a custody battle with her ex-husband. The court determines that she is an unfit mother due to her involvement in the p*rn industry, prior criminal record, and coke addiction. Buck Swope marries fellow p*rn star Jessie St. Vincent, who becomes pregnant. Because of his past, Buck is disqualified from a bank loan and cannot open his own stereo-equipment store. That night, he finds himself in the middle of a holdup at a donut shop in which the clerk, the robber, and an armed customer are killed. Buck escapes with the money that the robber demanded.

Having wasted their money on drugs, Dirk and Reed cannot pay a recording studio for demo tapes they believe will enable them to become music stars. Desperate for money, Dirk resorts to escortion but is assaulted and robbed by three men. Dirk, Reed, and their friend Todd Parker attempt to scam local drug dealer Rahad Jackson, by selling him a half-kilo of baking soda as coke. Dirk and Reed decide to leave before Rahad's bodyguard inspects it, but Todd attempts to steal additional drugs and money from Rahad. In the ensuing gunfight, Todd shoots Rahad's bodyguard and Todd is killed by Rahad. Dirk and Reed barely escape and Dirk reconciles with Jack.

In 1984, Buck and Jessie give birth to their son, Amber shoots the television commercial for Buck's store opening, Reed performs a magic act at a str*p club, Colonel James remains in prison, Maurice opens a night club and Rollergirl takes a GED class. Dirk and Amber prepare to start filming again.