Boogie Nights

That “Boogie Nights” goes to some dark places is no secret, but what’s a pleasant surprise is how it totally earns that darkness. This is a film of two halves, of a first half that revels in dialogue and optimism and the signature vices of the 70s and a second half where what’s unsaid is more important than what’s said, keeping its increasingly disparate story threads connected through shared misery. It is the sort of film that leaves one astonished as to how he could follow this up with “Magnolia”, which tries and fails to replicate “Nights”’s more inspired accomplishments.

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