10 Mind-Blowing Long Takes

Boogie Nights launched Paul Thomas Anderson's directorial credibility into the stratosphere. Taking inspiration from Scorsese's Goodfellas, Anderson charts the sprawling narrative of Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) and his rise-and-fall as a porn star during the late-1970s and early-1980s. Not only does it tell an ambitious, entertaining, and powerful story, but it also features two incredible tracking shots.

Proudly declaring Scorsese's influence from the first frame, Anderson opens Boogie Nights with a shot tracking Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) as they enter a nightclub. Floating through the club, shifting perspective from character to character as they interact with each other. The scene uses the club to introduce the bevy of major characters that the film follows in a place that they keep coming back to.

Anderson's films often study the changes catalyzed by shifting eras and Boogie Nights is no exception. The first act climaxes at a New Year's Eve house party that proves traumatic. The shot in question follows Little Bill (William H. Macy) as he realizes his wife, a chronic adulterer, is indulging in infidelity at the party, walks into their room, ambles out to the car for his revolver, stumbles back into their room to murder his wife and her lover, and finally shoot himself in the mouth.

The deliberate camerawork moving along with an increasingly unhinged Macy make for a dread-inducing sequence that sets the darker tone moving forward.