In the San Fernando Valley in 1977, teenage busboy Eddie Adams is discovered by porn director Jack Horner, who transforms him into adult-film sensation Dirk Diggler. Under Horner’s paternal guidance, Dirk joins a surrogate family of performers and misfits, where success feels communal and limitless. But as the industry shifts into the 1980s, ego, addiction and exploitation begin to fracture those bonds. This is the second feature from Academy Award-winning director Paul Thomas Anderson, a swaggering rise-and-fall epic in which confidence and excess collide, turning the porn boom into a sour take on the American Dream.

Reviews

‘Paul Thomas Anderson’s porn epic is still gaudy, seedy fun…a stylish and energetic descent into the cocaine-fulled world of the 70s adult film industry’
★★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian