Even though it follows the rise, fall and survival of a boy from the Valley who discovers that his "one special thing" is the enormous bulge in his pants, "Boogie Nights" is not about porn. It is about the people who make porn. Or, more accurately, it is simply about people, in all their sad, mad, wildly messed-up glory, grappling for whatever human connection they can forge in a world changing faster than they can keep up with. Although writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up film, "Magnolia," is more sprawling and ambitious and arguably emotionally richer, it is the exuberance of "Boogie Nights," its celebration of energy and promise, that makes it our pick from this definitively L.A. filmmaker. As triumphant as it can be upsetting, as death-knell dour as it can be playfully rowdy, "Boogie Nights" makes the city vibrate with possibility and seem -- to borrow from the E.L.O. song used so knowingly over the end credits -- to be a livin' thing.
L.A.'s story is complicated, but they got it
The city has been a main character in many films of the last 25 years. Our film crew picks the best. It's a tough list to crash.
MOVIES
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 55 words Type of Material: Correction
Los Angeles movies: An article in Sunday's Calendar about the best films of the last 25 years set in the Los Angeles area said of "The Big Lebowski" that Lebowski's mansion was on the Westside. The movie locates it in Pasadena. Also, it said "Training Day" was released in 1991. It was released in 2001.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, September 07, 2008 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 51 words Type of Material: Correction
Los Angeles movies: An article last Sunday about the best films of the past 25 years set in the Los Angeles area said of "The Big Lebowski" that the millionaire Lebowski's mansion is on the Westside. The movie locates it in Pasadena. Also, "Training Day" was released in 2001, not 1991.
Senior class: Keep an eye out for Iron Man's dad, director Robert Downey Sr., in a small role as a recording studio owner. The character played by Don Cheadle is named "Buck Swope" in a nod to Downey's film "Putney Swope."
-- Mark Olsen
3 "Jackie Brown" (1997)
Go ahead, start drafting your angry e-mail. This is the spot where you expected to see Quentin Tarantino's adrenaline-to-the heart masterpiece "Pulp Fiction," or maybe his bloodied caper film "Reservoir Dogs." No, after plenty of debate (and by split vote), we're going in a different direction: We pick "Jackie Brown," the less frenetic and more textured mapping of a Los Angeles we actually recognize. Tarantino himself has said he felt this might be his best and most nuanced representation of the place where he grew up. After "Pulp Fiction," the dropout from Narbonne High School in Harbor City wanted his follow-up film to tone down the overt pop-culture references and linger on the details of place.
The story follows Jackie (Pam Grier) and bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster, who was nominated for an Oscar) as they find trouble and each other amid a nasty game involving cops (Michael Keaton and Michael Bowen), an arms dealer (Samuel L. Jackson) and his dazed cronies (Bridget Fonda, Robert De Niro). The movie is based on a twisting Elmore Leonard novel, but what you see on the screen belongs to Tarantino. He switched the main character from white to African American and relocated the action from Miami to L.A., and after all the snap and crackle of "Pulp Fiction," he reins himself in to show slow-simmer moments between people who seem real and live in a real place.
