Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights

10:10pm - Saturday, Sep 5, 2020

"We're about to make film history, right here... on videotape. "

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson made an impression with his 1996 feature debut, HARD EIGHT, but it was his sophomore effort in 1997, BOOGIE NIGHTS that really cemented his career and place in Hollywood. Set in California's San Fernando Valley in 1977, the story centres on teenage busboy and high school dropout Eddie Adams (a memorable Mark Wahlberg), who gets discovered by idealistic porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner is drawn to the attractive young man, and recognizes his potential, before transforming him into adult-film sensation Dirk Diggler. Brought into a supportive circle of industry 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. Featuring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzmán, Nicole Ari Parker.

"A beautifully made survey of '70s excess, filtered through the trashy world of the burgeoning porno film industry in southern California." (Chicago Tribune)

"Not since the mysteriously reclusive Terrence Malick has there been such an explosion of sheer talent on the American movie scene." (Observer)

"The Quentin arantino comparison is ultimately less about technique than a shared joyful electricity of the filmmaking, the sense of an artist clearly high on the sheer act of making a movie." (VICE)

Saturday, September 5
Doors 9:40 pm | Movie 10:10 pm *Start time subject to change.
Tickets $15 advance | $15 at the door

*Rio Theatre Groupons and passes OK! Please redeem at the door.
**Minors permitted. (Language warning.) Must be 19+ w/ID for bar service

PLEASE NOTE: All of the Rio Theatre’s screenings are operating at a sharply reduced capacity. We can’t guarantee availability of tickets at the door, so advance tickets for all screening events are strongly recommended. Our online box office can be found at www.riotheatretickets.ca. Online sales for every screening automatically end 1 hour before any given showtime.

BOOGIE NIGHTS (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1977 / 155 mins / 18A) | Set in 1977 (back when sex was safe), pleasure was a business and business was booming for idealistic porn producer Jack Horner, whose aspirations include elevating his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams, a hot young (not to mention well-endowed) talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams' rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, "Dirk Diggler". Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams' dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.

Tickets no longer on sale for this event.

This event is over! Check out our events currently on sale