Don Cheadle did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Buck Swope in Boogie Nights
Don Cheadle in this film in a way might be part of what makes it as great of a film as it is. Obviously, the main story of Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) as he makes his way through the porn industry is fantastic, but it is all the little stories that add up together that might make this film as special as it is. The thing is Cheadle in a way you could argue is the most superfluous to the main story, because he associates very little with Dirk, and really most of his scenes are in isolation from many of the other characters. He never feels superfluous though because of just how good his story is and how good Cheadle is in his part. What Cheadle's Buck does provide is contrast. Most characters are broken in a fundamental way and their porn industry behavior is typically seeking acceptance, where they find great success in that industry. Well with Cheadle he's actually probably the most well-put-together person in the film, but the most out of place in the industry. Cheadle brings a wonderful amiable quality with his performance. There's just an innate pleasant optimism that Cheadle expresses as basically his character's default manner. When we see him in snippet moments his manner towards others is always appreciative, always genuine, and always like someone who wants to just be good and see good things happen to others. His delivery without circumstance is that of a light affability, of a man who really does love life and hopes for the best for everyone.
I must apologize for my earlier dismissals of this performance as just good limited performance. Now, this is an understandable mistake because Reilly really is rarely the focus of any given scene, he's the guy who's not Dirk, the secondary also-ran who is in the industry but isn't exactly new the star. Reilly though truly puts the value invaluable player, because shows what can be done in just bringing whatever one can bring in the limitations of a part. Reilly is just a ball of hilarity and the extent of his hilarity only gets better the more one watches the film. His initial scenes actually put him in opposition to Dirk in their first discussion together as they attempt to one-up each other. Reilly's delivery of explaining himself as looking like Han Solo with the perfect kind of unabashed straightforwardness makes it as though it would be obvious to anyone who can look perfect. What is only more perfect though is his extremely childish demeanor as he and Dirk attempt to top each other in various feats of strength and so-called accomplishment. Reilly is great because doesn't play it man to man trying to outmatch each other, rather they are so good at being so childlike in their attempts to basically say "nuh-uh" I'm stronger. It's a hilarious bit of work with both finding just the right chemistry in showing two rather thick-headed men meant for each other. Reilly naturally segues into basically Reed accepting his place, not as the lead that Dirk replaces, but rather Dirk's forever sidekick. In this state Reilly is just a ball of hilarity in every moment he is onscreen. There are just so many little moments of Reilly just adding a little bit to a scene through his mere presence, whether that be his enthusiasm that so brilliantly matches Wahlberg's as they come up with a new series of films, his properly bad porno acting, or his moments of being the ever-supportive friend to Dirk. There isn't a moment that Reilly wastes in terms of his performance that just adds a bit more comedy. One of the best scenes showing this approach is when he and Dirk runoff from the industry to try to break it into the film industry. Watch everything that Reilly does in this sequence and you will see a masterclass in the ways of comedic supporting acting. Even the way Reilly starts to mess with the soundboard with curiosity is hilarious before being shooed off. His reaction though as Wahlberg gales everyone with "You got the touch" so perfectly not quite in tune, is true comic greatness in his dancing that seems to say whatever Wahlberg is doing is the greatest thing achieved by man. Reilly though is what makes a funny bit, truly hilarious as that dance of his just adds the level of delusion and ridiculous to proper comic gold. The same is Reilly's own attempt at singing, which Reilly is actually quite great at, in reality, is perfectly inept but what makes it so funny, is that level of confidence on Reilly's face as he sings his duet with Dirk. Now in this sequence, you do get one of the few Reedcentric scenes for Reed where he tries to argue with the studio's owner to get their tapes. Reilly's delivery is marvelous because it is only with the utmost confidence that he refers to their terrible music as "Magic on the tapes". He underlines it with the right desperation, but so the key is just how much conviction he finds just as he stumbles through a spectacularly terrible attempt at trying to convince the owner of it. Reilly brings, which is wholly hilarious in every way. Again Reilly mostly isn't the focus but he doesn't need to be, this is a performance that rewards you on repeat viewings just to see the bits of comedy Reilly is doing off to the side as Reed just goes along with Dirk's misadventures. A highlight of this is the rock bottom drug deal, where Reilly's reactions are again gold in pure disbelief and comic fright as the two have to run away from a lunatic. Even the way Reilly runs into some bushes to escape shows just how to do that in a way that just looks funny. Reilly again is all about little bits, but little bits that add up magic on film...or at least that's how Reed Rothchild might describe it. 
I decided that I might as well include not one but two of the early, essential, and sadly all too brief collaborations between PTA and PSH, which seemed a legendary pairing in progress when sadly the latter died so prematurely. Both of these performances show the ease of the collaboration, as in each role Hoffman's role is relatively limited but nonetheless gives the great actor a chance to leave an impact. Hoffman reveals his range just in these two disparate roles that are of very different men. Scotty is a hanger-on boom mic operator on films that is more than a little affectionate towards the new leading man in Dirk Diggler. Hoffman's physical work here is fantastic as just the way he stands with his hunched shoulders, the way he looks with squinting anxiety, and moves just with this nervous hesitation reveals someone filled with desperation. Hoffman just stands out like a sore thumb in the right way, like someone in any given scene who doesn't quite fit in even in this world of misfits. He brings the right intensity of energy of want and needs to fit in though. His delivery is filled with so much attempt to be upbeat that the act of "please like me" is almost too obvious in that state. Hoffman portraying not a fellow coworker of Dirk, but the biggest fan of his possible, as his eyes are filled with admiration but more so need. Hoffman just is on this constant edge of man so desperate to fit in and please, which becomes most obvious when he shows off his new car to Dirk. Hoffman's face just brimming with pride, but also this intense attachment to Wahlberg throughout the moment as though he's made the perfect choice to make Dirk like him. Scotty then darting straight to trying to kiss Dirk Hoffman brings all the needed awkwardness at a moment's notice. Hoffman goes all in with the moment as though it is an irresistible urge and that he's trying to enact some perfect plan that Scotty had in his head. Hoffman is properly sloppy in every regard of someone unable to connect at the moment despite being so desperate to do so. Hoffman is great than at the moment after Dirk leaves, who actually was relatively nice in his turn down of Scott's advance. Hoffman though portrays no solace but rather just another defeat, and there is something so striking and raw as Hoffman's delivery of "I'm so stupid" is just filled with so much pain of a man writhing, of a man who wasn't exactly up before. Although his work is relatively brief Hoffman is terrific in creating such a sense of the hanger on that is Scotty, and the need in him to find something in this world, even if he mostly finds failure. Although let's also talk about this work as the craps player, which is no longer than 4 minutes, but just might be the best scene in PTA's feature debut. Hoffman shows his strength as a great actor really if you just compare the two characters at a fundamental physical level of his work, as you look at Scotty for a moment, you instantly think insecurities, you look at the craps player you see someone very comfortable in their life, maybe too comfortable, and in both Hoffman instantly shows you a type without a word.
Hoffman brings here as the craps player a frat boy energy who initially dismisses Philip Baker Hall's career gambler Sydney as "Oldtimer". What you get here is in Hoffman is showing what someone can do, as his choices here really are just so inspired in giving so much character, in who is technically a throwaway character in the scheme of the film. This brings this rude bravado however even though he's playing another level as he seems to be scanning Sydney as this intriguing man. His work then as he waits to play by lighting a cigarette with his playful singing as this initial taunt, but a kind of taunt that alludes to a kind of fascination with the person he's trying to mess with. When Sydney throws down a massive bet, Hoffman's reaction is amazing as the gravity of the bet hits him in just the way his face falls into revealing the sudden pressure that Sydney's put on him. Hoffman laughs now with this kind of defense but now his manner is even more of genuine interest as Sydney's revealed himself as a power player in the casino. Hoffman's performance that was a dismissing frat now has this energetic devotion to throwing the dice as he tries to get Sydney's hard eight bet. Hoffman now shows the young man totally into kind of the madness of the bet and his eyes this kind of pressure of the young man now hoping to do right by the old man he quickly dismissed earlier. I love Hoffman's final moment after missing the bet, still laughing to act as though it didn't hit him too hard, yet there is a real sadness. When saying "hey big time I'll buy you a drink" it is with this respect and even apologetic manner as the craps player has been changed in a matter of a single scene, and really via a single bet. Hoffman delivers what has to be described as great acting, because what makes the scene special, what makes the moment special, is really just all in what Hoffman does, all the shades of this guy in a single moment, you get a strong feeling for this random player, and makes for someone who is fascinating to watch for a brief time. It could've been truly nothing with a different actor, with Hoffman he made it something special. 
Thomas Jane plays a fringe player within the fringe world that the main character already inhabits. A man who appears as Diggler and others get more addicted to drugs and he shows up to provide said drugs on the regular. Jane, who later become better known for more straight-laced stoic turns, delivers one of those pre-type against type performances that are always fascinating in alluding to a very different side of a performer. Here you'd never Jane to become pegged as the stoic any man, instead, he just exudes the quiet desperation of a man living on the edge of the edge, right down to his mustache that just seems to scream the state of a man who isn't quite sure what exactly to do with himself. There's in this the right innate intensity, making him different from Scotty, as someone who is embedded in a kind of rougher existence that leaves him in a strange place. Jane's work just properly embodies the "bad friend" who suddenly appears in a drugged state and is all too ready to provide the direction for all to get even closer to rock bottom. The key to Jane's work though is he speaks of the suggestion to Dirk and Reed to take the plunge with this unearned confidence of a man who has accomplished something, which isn't the case for Todd. Of course, before we can talk about that path to rock bottom we must talk about...
Alfred Molina is one scene of Boogie Nights, and given it just might be the best scene in the film, it deserves more than a little time. We come across Rahad Jackson via Todd's rock bottom reaching method of him, Dirk, and Reed, going together to con the drug dealer Rahad by selling the man false cocaine. Now technically this role is functional, but the greatness of the scene is that Molina's work as Rahad is anything but. We enter into truly a world of his own as Rahad only wearing underwear and a bathrobe, listening to the hits of the day, along with his stoic bodyguard and his "lover/friend/something else?" who is silent except for his repeated tossing of a lit firecracker every so often. That is already a lot to take in and Molina is all the more. Molina right from the outset evokes someone who truly is in his own world in the sheer sort of innate jubilation of the man, who seems like he is always at least slightly high but also strangely high on life. Molina is great because he basically is portraying that Rahad, to Rahad, is living his very best life. When he starts singing along Jessie's Girl, even richly proclaiming that the singer Rick Springfield, is a "buddy of mine", Molina is in this state of sheer jubilation. There's something strangely magnetic in Molina's odd dance and far from perfect singing of a man who is just adoring every moment of this experience that is his life. When the trio of fools at first are living, at least Reed and Dirk, I adore Molina's delivery of "ah you just got here", because he shows that Rahad really just wants to party with them at this moment, he has absolutely no ulterior motives even as the other two men and especially Todd does. Speaking of Todd, Jane's performance is great as he starts out his plan, where Jane says the initial words as though he's planned to say these words a hundred times in just how exact, with the brilliant choice of just being a bit too quiet, showing that even as calculated as it is, his execution is already a bit off. Jane's then delivery of Todd's request for what's in Rahad's master bedroom is great as in his eyes there is just a man whose completely gone, just as he's so affixed to his intention at the moment, that he can't quite notice it as his intensity is also filled with such tremendous desperation. This is best exemplified by Jane's perfect stutter as he assures Dirk he knows what he's doing and really that stutter alone shows he doesn't know. Matching this is Molina's great reaction of disbelief as he hears of Todd's demand. Molina's fantastic by showing it as a genuine moment of disbelief actually towards Todd with his "like really" expression towards someone he just expressed friendship too. I love more though Molina's less convincing "don't worry about it wave" when Dirk and Reed try to explain that they're not in on the robbery, as Molina shows that Rahad is already switching gears to a more brutal drug dealer. Todd pulls out his gun giving two equally great moments from Jane and Molina, with Jane, basically crying in revealing just how gone Todd is into nothing, while Molina runs off with this maniacal laughter. Molina that returns in this rage of insanity as Rahad starts shooting anything that moves, and Molina is outstanding in oozing a mania that can be only defined by being fueled through a strong mixture of narcotics and adrenaline. Molina is beautifully insane through the moment, genuinely menacing while being oh so entertaining in showing Rahad completely off the bend. Jane delivers a memorable turn in creating the drug addict who is too rock bottom even for those at rock bottom, and does suggest perhaps he was often cast in the wrong roles later on. Molina here just delivers a proper one scene wonder, in that everything he does here is absolutely mesmerizing in his portrayal of a deranged drug dealer, it is all off the wall in the best way possible, leaving one of the strongest impressions on the film that is already filled with so many memorable moments and characters.
(Molina)
Where his conflict comes in his profession as an "actor" as he would say it, where he really struggles to find his voice as we see early on as he attempts some cowboy phase and later some dread-locked wig. He's just not a guy who really has the obvious place in the "industry". Cheadle is terrific in these moments because he shows them very much as just the attempt to make something work. He initially brings an eagerness to them, but there's also just this eventual shift towards this certain resignation. Cheadle embodies within his performance just the presence of a man who really is probably in the wrong line of work, even though as the ever optimist he tries hard to do his best. Cheadle again is wonderful in the moments with Buck's eventual wife, and fellow porn star Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters). Unlike many other relationships in the film, there is nothing broken in this one. They both find the right chemistry of just two people who genuinely bond and love each other. They have a great simplicity in their interactions that emphasize just people without the complication of needing the relationship due to some personal weakness, rather than need each other just because they love each other. In turn, we learn of Buck's real passion, which is to open a stereo store. Again Cheadle is great by brimming with this pride and energy about the idea, he shows a man with a real dream, and it is a moment in the film where you wholly believe this person in a way that rarely comes up in this film filled with delusion.
Of course, that isn't to say that Buck fully escapes the common flaw as we find him in a scene attempting to get a loan for his store, with his now pregnant wife. Cheadle is amazing in this scene because he shows both a man who is absolutely one hundred percent earnest but still lives within a definite delusion. Cheadle making his case is great because unlike when say Dirk states his delusions, such as the magic on his eventual attempted musical record, you laugh, but with Buck, you don't. This is because Cheadle shows that within his delivery someone who just wants to live out his simple dream, and in his eyes being attacked for his work one can see it hurts him deeply. Even Cheadle's repeated statements that he is "an actor", while a denial, does feel wholly sympathetic because although the statement is a delusion the way that Cheadle plays is someone absolutely telling the truth. The truth is that he is honestly pained for judgment, again as a man who just wants to be happy and for other people to be happy again. We see this even in one of his last scenes which is a stroke of luck/horror, as a brutal robbery goes down that he just happens to walk into. Cheadle's reactions in the scene are great as his plea for no shooting is blunt care for any human life, and in turn, his reaction to genuine trauma is perfect of a man who would rather see no one gets hurt even if it becomes his eventual gain. Cheadle's Buck again is a side character, but he brings you into every moment of his reflection of the main story of Dirk. Cheadle realizes someone who really does know what he wants, a store and a family, and really just is in the wrong line of work for himself. He's one of the few characters who never rage for his place or turns on someone, rather he so poignantly just someone finding his own place of happiness, in a way other people in his world couldn't even begin to approach.
John C. Reilly did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Reed Rothchild in Boogie Nights.
Philip Seymour Hoffman did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Scotty J. in Boogie Nights nor did he receive one for playing the craps player in Hard Eight.
Thomas Jane did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Todd Parker in Boogie Nights.
Alfred Molina did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Rahad Jackson in Boogie Nights.
(Jane)
