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.

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.

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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