Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #10 Boogie Nights
Box Office: $26.4 Million
Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Burt Reynolds), Best Supporting Actress (Julianne Moore), Best Original Screenplay
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 93/100
Available To Stream: Pluto TV, Amazon Prime ($3)
Boogie Nights is a movie that Burt Reynolds hated (before he got nominated for an Oscar) and Mark Wahlberg regrets making even today. It's also the greatest movie either of those guys ever made.
I don't see how anyone can watch this movie and not feel like they are in the hands of an absolute genius. Rob Reiner was a great director. Stand By Me, (#41) Misery and (#13) A Few Good Men are all great movies but they don't feel like they are made by a genius. That's also part of their charm. You could argue Paul Thomas Anderson is doing too much in Boogie Nights but I think it's exactly the right amount of overdoing it. It's a movie about excess and Anderson makes you feel it to your core.
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It also might have the greatest cast ever assembled. You can make a case for (#25) True Romance but I think Boogie Nights takes the prize if only because it uses the actors even more brilliantly. Wahlberg, Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, Alfred Molina and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are all brilliant. If I have to think of Macy in any movie, my go-to is (#16) Fargo. But if you ask me about any specific scene, it's when 1979 turns to 1980. That one-shot of Macy, getting humiliated yet again and going back to the car to get his gun is pretty much perfect filmmaking.
It's not easy to balance humor with major dramatic themes of drug addiction, murder/suicide and exploitation. It's even harder to also care a great deal about all of these characters in such a world. You want Don Cheadle's Buck to own a stereo store. It's heartbreaking to see him turned down for a loan. It's great storytelling to balance a plot line with such low stakes with everything going on in this movie. But Anderson pulls it off for the entirety of the 155 minute run time.
Having the movie shift in tone from the positive 1970's to the depressing 1980's allows a movie with such a long run time to not feel it. The Alfred Molina scene is near the end of the movie but the first time I saw this, I didn't once think about how long I have been sitting there. I was at the edge of my seat not knowing what is going to happen next.
This is one of my favorite epics ever and it does a perfect job of having unique characters that you haven't seen before, have them go through a ton of shit, and never have them lose the sense of who they are.
10. Boogie Nights
11. Jurassic Park
12. Jackie Brown
13. A Few Good Men
14. The Fugitive
15. The Truman Show
16. Fargo
17. Swingers
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks