This was the Paul Thomas Anderson's first short film. It runs about half an hour long, but it formed the basis for Boogie Nights.
PTA talks a lot about this on his commentary for Boogie Nights (which is fantastic, and entirely worth listening to). I never thought I would see it. Luckily, someone uploaded it to youtube.
It's fascinating. It's incredibly cheap looking, and probably was shot over the course of a few weeks. But it's interesting seeing similar material to Boogie Nights presented in a different format. I found myself enjoying the voiceover work, and found some of the other material that wasn't used in Boogie Nights, to be very funny.
There's a different tone to this. While Boogie Nights runs a wide gamut of moods, it ultimately ends on a hopeful note. In this case, the movie ends with the death of Dirk, and a variety of his co-workers mourning him. The relationship between Reed Rothchild and Dirk is different. It's more intimate, and not just because they shoot some gay porn together in this one. In Boogie Nights, Reed and Dirk gradually move apart as drugs take over their lives. Here, they don't. And Reed seems much more emotionally bonded to him.
The one scene that disappointed was that The Touch was included here. But it doesn't play as well, since he actually sings it fairly well.
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