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Amber has a drug problem that causes her to lose custody of her son to his clean and sober father. Buck is a man without identity, looking for the future in his wardrobe. Roller Girl is in high school for at least the first 20 minutes of the movie. Video is quickly replacing film, rendering Jack and his old school business model obsolete. Dirk discovers the burden of hard drugs, egos flare, friendships are tested and the future begins to look as dark as the tawdry, damp cinemas where Jack’s movies are shown.

One of the great things about Boogie Nights is the measured way in which it delivers the story. Obviously, this subject matter is uncomfortable for most people, but Anderson delicately blunts some of this with subtle humor. Most of these characters are comically oblivious to their own lack of intelligence, so little effort is required to make Dirk sound amusing when he compares himself to Napoleon, King of the Romans. Boogie Nights is not a comedy, but it doesn’t shy away from letting its characters look laughably shallow for their appetites.

Considering the subject matter, the story merely dances around subject of STDs, allowing the malaise of drug addiction to function as a metaphor. To some this is a cheat but it’s okay with me - one can destroy your life as easily as the other, and if the point was to underscore the risk inherent in this line of work - message received. All in all the film feels authentic, and it’s almost overwhelmingly sincere. In fact, it has all the hesitant self assuredness that most real adult films have (oh, stop pretending like you’ve never seen one), only it’s determined to provocatively straddle the often fuzzy line between tragedy and satire.

Anderson also does a great job of recreating the look and feel of the ‘70s on a very small budget. The hair, the clothes, the cadences of speech - it all feels real, at least to someone who’s barely old enough to remember the time. Period film stock is occasionally used to recreate the experience of watching Dirk and Company act on screen, and explain themselves to the world in a series of hilarious faux documentary clips. And the soundtrack itself is worth whatever you’re willing to pay for it.

My only real complaint with this film is that it’s way too long, and it’s a little too in love with its characters. The last quarter of the film kind of falls off a cliff, as the ‘80s swallow everyone up and the Piper finally gets paid. Some of it feels frivolous, but some of it serves to drastically undermine the “cautionary” part of the tale. In this case, the decision whether or not to leave your audience with hope ultimately says what kind of film you were trying to make, and in the end I suspect Boogie Nights is meant to be a movie ABOUT hope.

It’s also possible that immersing yourself in the lives of these people for 40 minutes too long forces you to understand them. It’s worth it, if only just barely.

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