Early in Boogie Nights, a new film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) says, "Everyone in this world has one special thing." In the typical coming-of-age story, the young upstart's "special thing" might be his mind, his ambition or his artistic ability. Eddie has none of these qualities: his "special thing" is his 18-inch penis. It is on this broomstick that Eddie rides to the top of the pornographic film industry. Along with Eddie, we enter the disco '70s at their quirkiest.

Boogie Nights boasts disco, teased hair, afro picks, porn, Burt Reynolds and Marky Mark. Yet out of all this tackiness, Anderson crafts a fine ensemble film and an unlikely family drama: Eddie finds porn stardom when he joins a strange "extended family" of adult filmmakers. The Cleavers--or the Munsters, for that matter--this family is not.

Burt Reynolds plays the patriarch, Jack Horner, an idealist porn director convinced that his films are art. With his wife Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), Jack serves as a surrogate parent to his actors: Eddie, whom he finds working as a runner in a disco; Rollergirl (Heather Graham), named for the rollerskates that never leave her feet, even when the rest of her clothing do; and Reed Rothschild (John C. Reilly), Eddie's boyish sidekick. This family, which includes a few other "stars" and crew members like Little Bill (William H. Macy) and Buck Swope (Don Cheadle), proves surprisingly endearing. As in good mafia films--like The Godfather and Good-fellas--the viewer finds a certain beauty and morality in a family that inhabits a world of such smut, frivolity and immorality.

This is not to say that the members of this clan are immune to such flaws. Yet that is precisely why the trick Anderson and his cast pull off is so admirable. Anderson makes the inherently unlikable lovable, the kitschy worthwhile and the ridiculous meaningful. Mark Wahlberg is excellent as the central character who changes from innocent and stupid Eddie Adams to egotistical and stupid porn star Dirk Diggler. Burt Reynolds seems likely to get a Travolta-like burst of renewed big-screen legitimacy from this role, as plays Jack with such sincerity that we almost believe that his films might actually be good (until we see how hilariously bad they really are). Jack, who has the delicacy to use terms like "Mr. Torpedo" rather than filthier terms for male genitalia, comes across as an honest and decent man despite his dissolute profession. Moore, as Amber Waves, also manages to display a certain sweetness despite her character's drug use and suspect "acting" career.

It does not take long for Anderson's fluid camera to lure us into this world. Anderson comes from the movie-buff school of filmmaking, and his film pays homage in many ways to the filmmakers who came of age in the 1970s, most notably Robert Altman and Martin Scorcese. The tracking shot, which Scorcese brought to a new level, is used early and often to full effect in Boogie Nights. The opening shot swoops down the street and through the doors of a topless disco, wherein it follows nightclub manager TT Rodriguez (Luis Guzman) as he meets and greets all the major players of this porn film world. A similar tracking shot of Harvey Keitel walking through the nightclub in Scorcese's "Mean Streets" comes to mind, as do the many meandering shots of such Altman ensemble films as "Nashville" or "Pret a Porter."

Though movie buffs might notice that the film's final scene mimics the final dressing room scene of "Raging Bull," the techniques Anderson borrows from his elders for the most part are not simply homage or imitation. The movement of the camera, which he uses throughout, suits his purpose well. Since his film, like many Altman films, is an ensemble piece, the camera wanders both to capture the wildness of the surroundings and to trace the lives of his many characters.

"Boogie Nights" has several great lengthy party sequences that, seen through this roving camera, allow production designer Bob Ziembicki to show off his fun and scarily accurate rendering of 1970s styles. Dramatically, these parties also serve as moments of intense action and change: Jack's 1980 New Year's party in particular is a crossroads after which none of the characters' lives remain the same. The carefree '70s have finished, and now these characters must face the sobering (if drug-ridden) '80s. What goes up must come down, and as usual, the fall is not nearly as much fun to watch as the rise.

Perhaps Anderson's greatest strength as a director is that he knows when to stop. He knows how to pace the film, a quality many young Hollywood directors do not have. Amid the bustle of this crazy world, Anderson often pauses to show us the calmer, sweeter moments, the smaller tragedies, and the overall vapidity of the era. Throughout "Boogie Nights," the soundtrack lowers, the camera sits still, and we get a clearer perspective of what's going on.

The characters ultimately get some perspective as well. By the end of the film, in a shot that cleverly mirrors the opening disco scene, Jack surveys his "family" and uses a classic '70s word to describe what his life has become in the '80s: "mel-Photo courtesy of New Line CinemaAN ENSEMBLE CAST: BURT REYNOLDS, MARK WAHLBERG and JULIANNE MOORE invite you to their party and hope that you will stay around to help