Over at Moon in the Gutter, Jeremy Richey is hosting a Paul Thomas Anderson Blogathon. With only five films to his credit, the choice for me was easy: Boogie Nights. I watched it again this weekend and found it as entertaining as ever, realizing even more how much it leans towards comedy over drama. The key to the comedy is not only the performances, especially John C. Reilly, whose Reed Rothchild might easily be outwitted by a billy goat, but the writing of dialogue so banal that it is somehow fitting and at the same time, earnest.
I put together this short video to highlight some of the dialogue and acting and would point you, in particular, to the final clip between Buck (Don Cheadle) and Jessie (Melora Walters). Their conversation is as innocuous as humanly possible and yet, they make an honest connection and both actors treat their characters as sweet and gentle people just trying to get by. We may laugh at how vapid their discussion is but to them, they're meeting a soulmate. It's a nice feat that Anderson manages to flesh out the characters of Boogie Nights with such extremely limited dialogue, but he does, impressively. Here's the video, but due to language, it's definitely NSFW. Enjoy.
24 comments:
I was waiting for the "I like simple pleasures" line, that always makes me roar.
Excellent compilation - I never realized how inane most of the dialouge is. And yet, the film is so damn compelling.
Boogie Night made me aware of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle and Julianne Moore - and gave Burt Reynolds his best screen performance since Deliverance!
Pax, I watched it again last weekend and then, because of going through it to collect clips, probably watched most of it two or three times again after that. And it still kept me interested!
I basically got to know all of those actors as well with this movie. Anderson put together a great ensemble of talent.
BOOGIE NIGHTS is actually my least favorite Anderson film, but that doesn't mean I don't like it a whole lot. And I agree, it's more of a comedy than anything else. Reilly's poem is so completely absurd, but delivered with such sincerity, that he makes the damn thing work.
I can't watch the video now, but I love the "behind the scenes" film Diggler puts together, especially the shot of him with his leg resting on the guardrail. He had the get his leg way up there in order to look relaxed.
Bill, I like it a lot but I definitely like Magnolia and There Will be Blood more.
I hadn't seen it in about five years probably when I watched it again this weekend and was pleased with how well it held up and, again, I'd forgotten how much of a comedy it is.
Reilly is freakishly good as Reed Rothchild. When you do get to watch the video, you'll notice that he dominates it. He says practically nothing of consequence the entire movie and yet he's probably my favorite character.
And that movie, directed by Amber (Julianne Moore), oh brother is that hilarious. After he does the leg thing to look comfortable, her director's choice is to pan over to the concrete aqueduct as the focal point of his pensiveness.
Yeah, it's like she knows that "panning" is a thing that people do, but she never considered that they might have something to pan to.
On Anderson's commentary, he says something about being an aspiring filmmaker, and seeing Reilly in CASUALTIES OF WAR, and probably something else, and thinking that while most people who move to LA to make movies want to meet De Niro and Scorsese and Spielberg and so on, he wanted to meet John C. Reilly and become his best friend.
I can totally understand. He made a good choice, as Reilly was also my favorite character in Magnolia. I think he's long overdue to have the outright lead in one of Anderson's movies.
I would love for him to get the lead in an Anderson film, but he comes awfully close with MAGNOLIA -- he's as close as that film gets to a lead, anyway.
Hoffman, too, but he's got one with Anderson's new film, which I wish could come out tomorrow, because Anderson telling a fictionalized and damning story about the creation of Scientology starring Philip Seymour Hoffman...that's...that's just too good to be true.
And I watched your video! Great job.
"I was just thinking about my name one day and thought it up."
"Amber...I live in this world."
Great stuff. I feel like watching BOOGIE NIGHTS now.
Greg -
Great montage!
I don't think I've seen "Boogie Nights" in its entirety since it was first in theaters. These clips just remind me again of how great John C. Reilly and Mark Wahlberg (among others) are in it and how well those dim, vacuous characters are portrayed. They're very funny in their cluelessness, and yet the film doesn't really ridiculet them.
I think "Boogie Nights" is really a better, more cohesive film than "Magnolia," but I love them just about the same. It's hard to resist "Magnolia," glorious mess that it is.
Thanks, Bill. I can't wait to see his next movie which, like you, I think sounds too good to be true. Does anyone have any dailies we can steal and start watching? Anything?
He's like Kubrick in that he takes 3 or 4 years between films at this point and, also like Kubrick, it's worth the wait.
"Boom, no more movies. I'm fine with that, I'll do other things. I'll fuck on my own time."
Pat, it never feels to me like Anderson is condescendig to them. They are clueless, yes, but he portrays it as a kind of innocent quality. As if, in the midst of all this porn, there are these kind, childlike people trying to survive.
And I guess one could view Magnolia as a mess in some ways, especially the deletion of Don Cheadle's scenes making the Reilly opening scenes somewhat aimless, but I think it's a tightly held together character study, and love it. Boogie Nights too, of course.
And thanks, about the montage. I'm pretty happy with it myself.
one of the happiest films of recent years!A treasure..and that was a great collection of clips!..
It's a joy, except for when Dirk is being mercilessly beaten. And when Amber loses any custodial rights to her son. But it does have, for all intents and purposes, a happy ending. And it's funny as hell.
I always thought the "happy" ending was a bit of a mixed bag, as far as happiness foes.
"Goes".
It has been a long time since I've seen this film, but it left an impression. Anderson manages large social commentary in the relative intimacy of individual characters (Magnolia) might be an exception here. I felt like this film was so much about the loss of innocence - with a different soundtrack, this could have been a band of hippies. Which, of course, can never last in our world. I love how Anderson can manage such poignance in the midst of comedy or ridiculous situations. He did it superbly in Punch-Drunk Love. He really knows how to bring out the best in actors.
Great choice, and thanks for the extended disco scene. I just loved it.
Bill, there's this moment that I never paid much attention to before but really struck me this time around. It's right at the very end when Jack Horner is walking through the house and you see Rothchild there, and he's a magician now. You see Buck installing a stereo and know he has his own business now. You see Rollergirl all happy and cleaning her room. And so on. Then Horner gets to the master bedroom and Amber is sitting in front of the mirror and he leans in to kiss the top of her head as he calls her "the foxiest bitch in the world" and then walks off and Anderson goes in on her face and, well, she looks really depressed.
After seeing everyone else happy you see her, and though it's hard to pinpoint what it is, there's definitely something wrong with her. It's a great piece of ambiguity to finish off her character.
Marilyn, I love the disco scene too, which is why I kept it going so long. And you're right, it doesn't really matter that they're porn stars, they could be hippies trying to make a commune work. Essentially, that's what Jack Horner's house is, their communal retreat.
A part of what makes the characters so endearing is their intellectual simplicity which does bring children to mind and, as such, innocence. I think it's pretty great that he made a film about a loss of innocence involving people in the porn industry, an industry that one would associate with being filled with people who had learned tough life lessons, but instead fills it with people who seem lovable and in desperate need of positive attention.
Greg,
I guess I've always thought that with "Magnolia," Anderson bit off a bit more than he could chew, but I loved it for that. I do think Julianne Moore -so perfect here - is absolutely dreadful in "Magnolia," one of the worst performances she's ever given.
But - on the ohter hand - I really love the Aimee Mann soundtrack, I have the "Magnolia" CD and still listen to it every now and then.
Don Cheadle getting his own business has always been a big sticking point for me. So, the money he gets from a guy who robs doughnut shops was enough to push him over the top? I don't think that's very likely.
Apart from Amber's sadness at the end, there's Diggler, who's still just fucking delusional. He still thinks he's a big star, but we know he's not -- he's just sad. That's how it always played for me.
And Pat -- Much as it pains me, I have to admit that you're right about Moore in MAGNOLIA. I love that film beyond all reason, but her performance is bizarrely off-calibration. I don't know what she and Anderson were thinking during the "shut the fuck up" and pharmacy scenes. She's not the only problem with the pharmacy scene -- the whole thing doesn't work -- but she stands out as especially bad there. But oh well. She's a great actress, and it's a great film, so I just count it as an unfortunate whiff, and move on.
During the donut shop hold-up the robber does ask for the safe to be unloaded too. Now, if they have a week's worth of deposits in there, it could be quite a lot. Added to whatever he's been saving and, yeah, I'm willing to suspend my disbelief and think that could do it.
Diggler is delusional but he's back with Jack now, doing his thing and since the big meltdown we can assume he is back to being meek around Jack (especially judging from Jack's happy demeanor). What I find so good, and funny, about the final scene is that it's six years since the story started and he's still reciting the same lines! - "Where the fuck is Ringo, you bitch!" And he's rehearsing it! To the mirror! A fucking line he's delivered a thousand times in one cheap-ass porn retread after another and he still doesn't have it down.
As for Magnolia, I've only seen it twice, when it came out and a couple of months after that so it's been over ten years and I can't recall Moore being bad but I'd have to see it again. I vaguely recall the pharmacy scene but not enough to enter into the debate. I remember John C. Reilly and Melora Walters more than anything else and I know I really loved the movie when I saw it but I'd definitely have to watch it again. Until then, I'll defer to the excellent tastes and rock-solid opinions of Pat and Bill.
Don't have much time to write, but just wanted to jump in on the conversation on Moore in Magnolia. I think it's genius. Over the top? Sure. Just like Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Doesn't mean it isn't true.
The drug store scene is absolutely the most polarizing. I can totally understand why people hate it. Totally. It's one of those kinds of scenes. But I love it. It works for me in every way as a portrait of a woman who has absolutely lost it. That it seems "bizarrely off-calibration" is exactly right, and also what I think makes it feel to true to me. I don't think that Moore's performance feels unrealistic in that scene so much as it feels far beyond the way any other actress would have played that scene.
I think Boogie Nights is still a more rounded and fulfilling performance. But I find Moore much more genuine in Magnolia than in The Kids Are All Right, to pick a film where she pretty much plays it down the middle.
Again, unlike when I point out faults in Eastwood's movies and his fans act as if I've said the man is an African American, as if they can't comprehend what I'm seeing, I'm never surprised that people are put off by Moore in Magnolia. But I love that performance.
makes it feel to true to me
How about "so true"...
So, hours later ... a few last points ...
First: Greg, great job with the montage. It's a wonderful celebration of your theme.
Second: "I'll fuck on my own time." Maybe my favorite line in the film, and that's saying something.
Third: I was so glad to see more of the disco scene at the end. My favorite move is the one in which Dirk pivots around on one foot while waving his hands above his head as if shaping this huge, invisible afro. Love it.
Jason, like I said, I don't recall enough of Magnolia well enough to join in, just that I don't remember her as bad but that's not saying much. I'll definitely watch it again soon.
As for Reed Rothchild's line, yeah, I love it too. His whole answer ("boom, no more movies") is hilarious because he thinks he's actually providing a brilliantly clever answer, and he's not, by a long shot.
And thanks for the props on the video. That disco scene is awesome. I'm glad so many of us like it. Also, notice when he does the hands thing that all the girls have fallen to their knees in a circle around him. I didn't even notice that until the third or fourth time I saw it.
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