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Fresh off watching One Battle After Another, I did a livestream review of Boogie Nights with Tyler Tone as part of a series on Paul Thomas Anderson films. We begin with a discussion about the movie playing to nostalgia. This was a film made in 1997 set in the 1970s and 1980s. It is impossible to imagine us today having the same feelings looking back at the aughts. I wonder whether this is similar to economic growth in that the low hanging fruit has been picked, and you can only do things like sexual liberation and break down taboos once. Culture thus becomes stuck soon after society achieves a long enough streak of peace and prosperity.

We debate the message of the film. I came away believing that it was very anti-porn, while Tyler sees it more as about Hollywood in general, and with an uplifting message in the end. My view is quite darker. We discuss the B characters, and what their stories are trying to tell us.

We’ll be doing There Will Be Blood next, so stay tuned for that.

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