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Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s ode to the ’70s porn industry brings poignant depth to its sensational subject matter.  It’s also an amazing showcase of top-notch acting and directing.  Anderson is a rare creative talent, as skilled with actors as with the camera, a compelling combination of Steven Spielberg and Robert Altman.

The formidable cast includes Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Mark Wahlberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, and many other remarkable talents.  Moore and Reynolds were Oscar-nominated for their work, but even the smallest of roles in “Boogie Nights” are delectable ones, from Luis Guzman’s part as the night club owner to Joanna Gleason’s vitriolic turn as Wahlberg’s mother. There’s no one you don’t care about, no throwaways.  The film takes you through these characters’ emotional ups and downs, and by the end you can clearly see they’ve formed a surrogate family — sometimes sweet, sometimes sordid, but family nonetheless.

Composer Michael Penn opens and closes the film with broken-down carnival music, and I think that’s a brilliant way to represent the film’s characters.  They’re cogs in a great machine, capable of the highest highs and the lowest lows, but once they’re part of the machine, they’re part of it forever.

In the last scene of the movie, we finally see Dirk Diggler’s claim to fame.  To have seen it earlier in the film would have been sensational, but after a harrowing down-swing in the machine’s vicious cycle, Diggler’s endowment picks up mixed meaning.  It’s the crux of his existence, both glorious and pitiful, empowering and enslaving.  And the show must go on.

Oscar Nominations: Best Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Reynolds), Supporting Actress (Moore)