Part of Music City Mondays
The Belcourt kicked off this summer with Paul Thomas Anderson’s MAGNOLIA in 35mm, and closes it with his preceding film BOOGIE NIGHTS — the top bun in a PTA summer sandwich, if you will. In the San Fernando Valley in 1977, teenage busboy Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) gets discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who transforms him into adult-film sensation Dirk Diggler. Brought into a supportive circle of friends, including fellow actors Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), Rollergirl (Heather Graham) and Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly), Dirk fulfills all his ambitions — but a toxic combination of drugs and egotism threatens to take him back down.
“If you've never seen it in a theater, the moment of anticipatory darkness before the blazing title fills the screen (not to mention the unbroken three-minute shot that follows) is one of the reasons movies were invented.” —Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene (Mar 12, 2009)