
DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711040527

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E11  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   69 lines

HUMAN FRAILITIES SPARK FILM ABOUT '70S PORNOGRAPHY ERA

PLEASURE AND excess lead to the ultimate tragedy of ``Boogie Nights,'' a movie that is less about pornography than it is a spoof of pornography. ``Boogie Nights'' never plays it safe and this, in itself, keeps us involved for the full 2 1/2-hour running time.

Paul Thomas Anderson is the 27-year-old director who is surprisingly reckless and flamboyant in this, only his second film and his first major release. He depicts a vulgar era and a group of supremely dumb people with compassion. His characters are sometimes hilarious in their self-absorption and their belief that they are so cool. The audience will, or should, take delight in the fact that they are not.

More a series of character studies than an actual plot, the film concerns a group of porno moviemakers from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. And, lest we get too smug about looking back at the era, we might be reminded this was about the time that movies like ``The Devil in Miss Jones'' and ``Deep Throat'' were shown at an academic film festival in Williamsburg. The results of the sexual revolution were in effect, and often more laughably revolting that liberating. Anderson, who is going to evolve as a major director from this outing, has some of the flashy character touches as Robert Altman's ``Nashville'' (but no one is saying this is in the same league with that masterpiece).

Outwardly, it is just a rags-to-riches-to-rags story of 17-year-old Eddie Adams, who, due to his large ``talent,'' becomes Dirk Diggler, porn-star supreme. Eddie-Dirk is played with star-making vulnerability by Mark Wahlberg. Dirk falls into disfavor when he crosses his mentor, Jack Horner, played with world-weary abandon by Burt Reynolds, an actor who has been known to be as wasteful of his resources as the character he plays. His appearance as the director and father figure of the clan is more a presence than a performance, but one that gives the film some weight. Horner claims to be an ``idealist'' in that he hopes to make porno films into an art form. He is thwarted by the advent of video, which sent the audience rushing behind its closed doors.

Julianne Moore is both funny and tragic as Amber Waves, the aging stripper who becomes a kind of mother figure to Dirk. One wishes more had been done in developing her character. She's such an unlikely porn star that it adds sly laughs. William H. Macy (Oscar nominee for ``Fargo'') plays Little Bill, who is forced to watch as his wife has quite-public sex with everyone in sight. He hardly hints at the trauma he's experiencing until late in the film.

Heather Graham is Rollergirl, the teen nonentity who likes to take off everything but her rollerskates. Don Cheadle is Buck Swope, who likes to dress in cowboy clothes. Together, they form a weird family that lives in their own casual world of excesses.

Yes, there is that already-notorious full-frontal scene, but it, too, seems like an excessive joke. As the death of disco and the premature burnout of the characters approach, concerned moralists can be satisfied at least that all of them suffer the consequences of their heartless pleasures.

The length hurts the film, but it nonetheless holds our interest - if only to keep us guessing how far it will go. Few recent films have been structured with this much foresight. A sly, mischievous and youthfully reckless director is at work here. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Boogie Nights''

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle,

John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Philip Baker Hall,

Ricky Jay

Director and Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson

MPAA rating: R (nudity, language, some violence)

Mal's rating: Three 1/2 stars