Boogie Nights

Yup, I watched it. I don't know why I watched a movie about the porn industry and expected it not to have a lot of sex in it, but I did. If you're wondering why I watched this movie in the first place, I'll give you three reasons:

1) Mark Wahlberg.
2) It's actually somewhat critically acclaimed, and Marky Mark's breakout film.
3) I was snowed in.

Whether any or all of those reasons is good enough for you is matter for a different discussion. I have an inexplicable "thing" for Mark Wahlberg (clarification: a "thing" is different than a crush; I don't watch his movies because I think he's hot and I want to see more of him; I watch his movies because he confuses and amuses me).

Apart from seeing more sex than I wanted to (and in reality, there was probably no more sex than was in The Reader, it just didn't look as pretty or seem as romantically tragic), I have mixed feelings about this film. On the one hand, it's about more than the porn industry; it's about a lost boy looking for a way to be something and thinking he finds the answer down his pants. It's also about what a significant number of other movies have been about, i.e., the downside of fame, fortune, and power, particularly when they're obtained through some illegal, unsavory, or atypical means deemed unacceptable by society (Ex: drug dealers, mobsters, prostitutes, rock stars). Maybe this is why the movie ultimately didn't do it for me - because the main story (or "message," if you will) seemed so familar. I've seen it before, recently (Blow, American Gangster ), and I've seen it before, done better (The Godfather and Godfather II).

Still, this movie deserves some credit for a) discovering that Marky Mark had more to offer than just his fit bod as an underwear model, and b) having the nerve to tackle the porn industry and essentially treating it as if it were just any other business. What's good about this movie, and at the same time what makes it sad, is that it shows us the most overt human vices - sex, drugs, money - and lets us see what happens when they're taken to their utmost extremes. Eventually, Dirk Diggler (Marky Mark's character) get's everything he ever wanted, loses it all, and, at the very end, slowly starts to regain it again. The thing is, even when he was on top, it didn't look all that appealing.

What makes this film still relevant, and at times - if you can call it that - touching - are the various moments of desperation and humiliation experienced by the ensemble of characters. There's Don Cheadle as the Western-clad, wannabe cowboy and pathetic stereo salesman Buck Swope, wondering to his buddy why he's not successful even as his friend tells him that fringed shirts are no look for a black man; Heather Graham and Julianne Moore as porn stars Rollergirl and Amber Waves, sobbing in each other's arms after deciding to be a surrogate mother/daughter pair while tweaking out on coke; John C. Reilly as Dirk's best friend Reed Rothchild, initially trying to one-up him like a little kid comparing card collections; William H. Macy as the director's assistant Little Bill who's forever stumbling upon his wife in bed (or on the lawn, or in the pool) with another man, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the porno groupie Scotty J, with his misplaced admiration for Dirk that leads to a supposedly drunken kiss and an ensuing love declaration. It's these moments and these characters - and their desperate attempt to find some sort of meaning in a world that has none - that provides the heart of the film. Ultimately, everyone in the movie has the same story as Dirk - not the fame and the fortune part, but the part that brought them to the industry in the first place - of a lost someone looking for a place to call home, or a somebody to think they're something.

The movie doesn't glamorize this world, nor does it make it look terrible. Instead, it tackles the whole thing with an "it is what it is" attitude - these are porn stars, yes, but they're people too. Boogie Nights doesn't pose a lot of questions, but it does present some situations that could lead to them. Nor does it make any attempts to provide the answers. It's just "Here are some people, they do what they do." Some have reasons for the choices they've made, and maybe some of these reasons are excuses for the way they turned out. They rise, they fall, and (if they're still alive), they find solace in the father figure that is director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and the camraderie of the others who have ended up, by chance or by choice, in the same sordid profession as they did.

The Reader

I've been wanting to see this film ever since I first heard about it. First, because Kate Winslet is probably my favorite actress and fantastic and diverse in everything she does. And secondly, I'll admit, because the subject matter seemed so salacious: older woman has sex with underaged boy and turns out to be some sort of Nazi. I'm not a pervert; it's just that there's no way you can read that description of a film and not think it sounds interesting. Plus, the fact that it was nominated for multiple Academy Awards and starred Kate Winslet meant that it had to be more than just a sensationalized sex story.

And it was. As soon as I finished watching it, I felt eager to recommend it to my family. Upon second thought, I realized that it really does have quite a few very nude love scenes and might not be the best "family film." But the reason why I initially failed to remember the multiple sex scenes in this film is exactly the reason why it's so good: this is one of those rare movies where I felt the sex/nudity was neither gratuitous nor did it overshadow the point of the movie. I can't say much without giving too much away, but for me, this film was ultimately about the life of one woman as discovered by a boy (and later man) who once, and perhaps still does, unconventionally love her. A truly good film has the ability to take an obscure and unrelatable situation (for example, a Nazi woman who has sex with fifteen year old boys) and help us see our own humanity in it.

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes (funny, I always thought it was Shakespeare) "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Though we don't all consummate our lust for people that are off limits, and we certainly aren't all Nazis, the emotions portrayed in this film - wonder, innocence, uncertainty, excitement, confusion, shame, pity, anger, grief, love - have been felt throughout the ages, time and time again, by all sorts of people. This film recognizes both the beauty, and the frailty, of such emotions, no matter who they are felt by. While The Reader by no means celebrates the actions of the characters in the film, it honors the integrity of the emotions that result from them.

I am so glad I watched this film, and so glad that Ms. Winslet finally, finally won her much deserved Oscar.

The Fountain

I've watched so many movies since last posting, many of them memorable, and have at least a couple of unfinished posts waiting to be published, so rather than try to catch up thoroughly, I'm just going to give some very brief reactions to whichever ones I can remember. I have given no deep thought or extended contemplation towards the critique of any of these films, apart from the reflection that is a natural part of time's passage.


First up: The Fountain. This movie wasn't perfect - I suppose a few moments didn't quite "land" - but I loved it. Going into it, I knew nothing about the plot, when it had been released, or who directed it, and I couldn't remember having read a single review of the film. This was the ideal state of mind with which to go into watching this movie (and indeed, I wish I could go into more movies with such total ignorance). The movie is directed by Daron Aronofsky, who I later found out directed Requiem For a Dream, Pi, The Wrestler, and the soon to be released Black Swan. I hadn't seen any of those other films at the time; the only thing I knew was that he often uses the composer Clint Mansell, who wrote the epically memorable score of Requiem For a Dream that was used in The Two Towers trailer. The music for this movie is every bit as memorable and beautiful (I'm listening to it right now), and appropriately captures both the devastating, all-consuming grief and the eternal triumph felt by the main character in the story. Speaking of characters, the two main ones are played wonderfully by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Rachel Weisz was and always is lovely - both lovely acting and lovely looking. As for Hugh Jackman...I had no idea he could act! But he can, and he was excellent in this film - so good that I totally forgot he was Hugh Jackman at all, that buff, singing, Sexiest Man Alive.

A previous review sums up the story better than I can, so I'll paste that description here: "A love story weaving together three interrelated tales set in the past, present and far future, with the couples in each all played by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz: a medical researcher racing to find a cure to save his terminally-ill wife; the characters in a novel she's writing about a 16th century conquistador questing after the fabled Fountain of Youth for his lover, the Queen of Spain; and the same scientist, who mysteriously hasn't aged, traveling to a distant star in the 26th century, still searching for the secret of eternal life." I can see some people distancing themselves from this third sequence and dubbing it too "New Age-y" (I myself felt a slight pull in this direction), but don't if you can at all help yourself. There is actually nothing in the sequence that need be silly (or for Christians) heretical. Some may think this film advocates for its own specific vein of vague "spirituality", but I would disagree. Rather, I think it's a mediation on one man's attempt to deal with death, grief, and loss, and the very reason it's so wonderful is because it manages to be simultaneously acutely personal and relatedbly universal. One more thing I would like to mention: this movie is visually beautiful, especially the scenes in the snow.

Well, that was longer than I thought it would be, but in closing: see this movie, go into it with focus and an open mind, and you might be taken by surprise.