Watch Action Bronson Reenact The Recording Studio Scene From Boogie Nights
There Will Be Blood is a great, great movie, but for my money, Paul Thomas Anderson’s best film to date is 1997’s Boogie Nights, about the rise and fall of fictional porn star Dirk Diggler (played by Mark Wahlberg). At the crest of that fall, a delusional, coked-out Diggler attempts to move from porn to pop music, and he rents out a studio to record some sub-Corey Hart jams, including “You Got The Touch,” with his friend and colleague Chest Rockwell (John C. Reilly) gamely cheering him on from behind the boards. It is at once a very funny and very sad moment. Today, Action Bronson releases a teaser video for his upcoming album, Mr. Wonderful, which sort of recreates that scene — with Bronson in the role of Diggler, singing new track “Only In America,” and his producer Party Supplies filling in for Reilly’s Rockwell. (Pete & Pete’s Danny Tamberelli serves as the beleaguered recording studio engineer, played in Boogie Nights by Michael Penn.) It’s not entirely faithful to the source material — where Rockwell called for more vocal and less bass in the mix, Party Supplies is demanding “more bass” (not exactly a rousing endorsement of Bronson’s singing!) — but it’s pretty close, and it’s very funny. It’s safe to say Mr. Wonderful will fare better than “You Got The Touch,” but it’s definitely worth watching the recreated scene, and below that, the original.
Mr. Wonderful is out 3/24 via Vice/Atlantic.