Copy-Cat Cinema

"Good Artists borrow, great artists steal," so said a famous someone or other. All great artists need a starting point and Anderson couldn't have picked a greater group of directors to emulate. To shrug Boogie Nights as merely a work of plagiarism would be a hostile way of describing what exactly is happening here. Through the power of transformation and remix, Anderson is translating old convention and style for the benefit of fresh eyes. Thus, a new cinematic vocabulary is born.