Inherent Vice (2014)

Let's start this off with a reward offering. I'll pay anyone $20 if they can explain to me, in detail, the full plot and synopsis of "Inherent Vice," front to back. That's a good place to start, eh?

The New York Film Festival press and audiences given the gift of a first look at Paul Thomas Anderson's hotly anticipated "Inherent Vice" starring Joaquin Phoenix and an all-star cast. Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, rumors flew about for months that the novel is a tough read and that the translation from book to film could be confusing in the hands of an auteur filmmaker like Anderson. Well, to a certain extent, they are absolutely correct. "Inherent Vice" is such a mind trip, one that will probably make you want to enroll in drug rehab by the end credits. What's amazing about it is even though you, nor I will probably "get it," and there's way more questions than answers at the moment, I cannot wait to revisit it again to start seeking those things out. You can see a little of Anderson's entire filmography.

Our "basic synopsis" is the story of Larry "Doc" Sportello, who in the 1970's, begins to search for his missing former girlfriend. The other things that accompany those facts, is a hallucination of laughs, satire, and magnificent filmmaking abilities.

Let's start with thanking the good Lord for Paul Thomas Anderson and his love of 35mm. Even though the screening did not show the film in that quality (the public screening however did), there's a charm that's still embedded within all of Anderson's film that pays homage to all the classic films of history. This is also partly thanks to Academy Award winning DP Robert Elswit, who can frame a scene to tension and success. Much like his past efforts such as "The Master," "There Will Be Blood," and "Boogie Nights," there's a magnitude of a visual master's exercises on display. He crafts provocative and engaging players that fully mesmerize you for its duration.

On the top of his game, once again is the genius that is Joaquin Phoenix. He's hilarious, and nothing like "The Dude" as many will compare him. He's a three-dimensional character with layers, fully invested in the story, and best of all, utterly believable. In a quirky, detective mystery such as this, you expect some outrageous behavior that can sometimes run false. Call me crazy, I believed nearly all. Phoenix is pure, ludicrous, and keeps you fixated entirely. You couldn't ask for a more dependable thespian at this time in cinema. There's even a weird but obvious comparison to Freddie Quell, as if Freddie's illegitimate child got into drugs and missed out on the alcoholism.

The supporting players are as rich as any Anderson creation before. Finally back to large ensembles, where he has shined time and time again in films like "Magnolia," he assembles one of the strongest casts seen in 2014. Like a rock and roll star, Josh Brolin owns the stage with a savage and vicious dedication to his character, he stands out as one of the finest performances of the year. I adored him, and it might be his finest outing yet, and something that could ring him some much deserved awards attention.

If you don't know her name yet, Katherine Waterston will be on the tongues of many for years to come. As Shasta Fay Hepworth, you'll find an enigmatic character with an entrancing and sensual aura. At time

Fmovies: "I never remember the plots of movies. I remember how they make me feel."

• Paul Thomas Anderson, 10/5/2014, "On Cinema Masterclass", New York Film Festival

It's nearly impossible to talk about Inherent Vice, PTA's new stoner noir, without providing some context.

It's crucial to know, for example, that the film is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel. It's also crucial to understand the novel's subject matter and setting: a sprawling conspiracy, which may or may not exist, that involves a real estate mogul, hippies, the LAPD, and a heroin cartel named the Golden Fang, all against the backdrop of Southern California in 1970, the year after the Manson Family Massacre. Some familiarity with Pynchon's literary output–both his prose style and unique narrative structure–is helpful as well, almost required. Finally, to really grasp Inherent Vice, it'd be useful to know PTA's relationship with plot, which can best be understood by reading the quote above and thinking about the trajectory of his career (a career marked by films that have become more and more "plotless").

So, when we put all of this together, what do we get? To a large degree, we get exactly what we should have expected: a filmmaker creating a nearly-flawless adaptation of a nearly-impossible-to-adapt author. Wacky humor, a never ending stream of new characters (some of whom are neither introduced nor explained thoroughly), dialogue that sometimes feels like it's written in code, abrupt jumps between characters and scenes, unapologetically deep cultural references, long and wordy voice-overs, seemingly random occurrences that don't tie together, and a continual sense of paranoia that grows from the viewer (or reader's) inability to decipher what's real and what's imagined. Make no mistake, at the center of Inherent Vice is PTA's unyielding dedication to Pynchon's vision and his desire to put that vision, in full, on screen.

But, PTA's decision to remain so faithful to Pynchon's imagination comes with its faults. The only character we really feel invested in is Doc, the stoner, private eye protagonist played by Joaquin Phoenix (Phoenix is in almost every scene and deserves another Oscar nomination for his fantastic work). The other characters end up feeling peripheral, almost like they exist only to drive forward the narrative of Doc's detective search rather than exist as individual characters we should care about. Even Doc's love interest, Sashta, who shows up at Doc's house in the first scene and asks for a favor that sets in motion the goose chase at the heart of the film, is difficult to care about. Her presence in the film, while strong in certain moments, doesn't seem to stick because it's so ephemeral, dreamy, and enigmatic.

This is a flaw sometimes overlooked in novels (see DeLillo or Foster Wallace in addition to Pynchon), but it often distances viewers when done in films. More importantly, it's a criticism totally inapplicable to PTA's previous films. Boogie Nights and Magnolia also centered around ensemble casts, but in those films the viewer deeply cared about each and every character, whether it was Quiz Kid Donnie or pornographer-turned-speaker- salesmen Buck. The difference: PTA creating his own characters from scratch versus PTA capturing another artist's vision in uncompromising fashion.

It's also important to remember that many of Inhe

To watch actors dryly deliver page after page of plot that no one comprehends or is interested in while they imitate the acting style of old Hollywood noir films and stoner comedies is not why I go to the movies. Paul Thomas Anderson is a great filmmaker when he uses his own voice, and thankfully this film is the only exception to that.

Unless you're a superhuman, you won't have the memory (or attention span) to understand the plot. It's as if it's deliberately convoluted, like Anderson doesn't want us to know what's going on, or at least doesn't want us to care. Yet this is not the case because of the scenes that dwell on nothing else but dialogue whose only purpose is to read plot to us and maybe put us to sleep.

There isn't any character beyond caricature. I don't relate to this Doc character beyond the his relationship with his ex-girlfriend which is the only thing that one can possibly invest emotion into, albeit this is not an emotionally driven story. The characters are supposed to be funny but I just found them bizarre.

That being said, there is something about the overall tone and production design of the film that sticks. The meandering nature of the era is there and while we've seen many similar films about the 70s this film is just different. It's ambitious in the way that it's so plain but also strange, only many will have a hard time deciphering between art and bullshit. It's bullshit to me because there wasn't anything for me to take from the film. It was more "this is kind of weird" but to no end.

I would not recommend this film to anyone unless you are a cinephile, in which case you just have to see it because it's Paul Thomas Anderson. I feel bad for anyone who naively walks into this film looking for something to enjoy and laugh at. Parts got laughs but they were widely dispersed in a film that just felt like it wouldn't end. Being the fan of Anderson's that I am I feel like this film was a waste of time. Even if you end up liking it (which I personally would not understand) you'll see what I mean.

Inherent Vice fmovies. Larry "Doc" Sportello, an unorthodox private-eye (Joaquin Phoenix) smokes a joint in his California shore-house--the waves on one side, and a whole mess of bad vibes on the other. Then in walks his ex-old lady, Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston), brining some of those bad vibes with her. She's with a married man now, Mickey Wolfmann, and his wife wants her help to make off with his money and get him sent to a loony-bin. Through a cloud of marijuana smoke, Doc barely manages to mumble, "I think I've heard of that happening once or twice." Agreed, Doc, that does seem pretty predictable. But then Wolfmann disappears and so does Shasta and the body count begins to climb. What follows is one of the most unique and unexpected trips of 2014. Inherent Vice throws the audience into the year 1970. Everyone wants to just smoke a joint and love each other, but they can't seem to stop the wave of paranoia that's overtaking them. As Doc delves deeper into the seemingly infinite mystery that unravels, neither he nor the audience is ever sure who to trust. One of these beautifully morally ambiguous characters is Lt. Det. Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen (Josh Brolin), who gets plenty of screen-time and spends most of it eating frozen bananas and railing against hippies. Brolin and Phoenix's on-screen chemistry is off the charts, and the complicated relationship between their characters is explored through scenes of extreme hilarity. At the same time that I was questioning Bigfoot's moral compass and how dedicated he really is to justice, I was watching the screen through a filter of tears from laughter.

Many have been calling Inherent Vice a combination of Chinatown and The Big Lebowski, and that's a pretty accurate description. It blends the beautiful look and complicated plot of neo-noir films with an almost surreal kind of stoner-comedy and it meshes perfectly. It also pulls from retro-noir films like Sunset Blvd. and utilizes a large deal of narration. Noir films usually blend exposition with character development in their narration--The male protagonist narrates and his beautifully crafted sentences highlight how tough he is and how fed up with everything he's become--but Inherent Vice takes a different route entirely. Sortilège (Joanna Newsom) narrates and exposition comes packaged together with an almost sentimental poetry that adds a layer to the loving, yet distrustful view of the Californian landscape. Sortilège is a highly mysterious character that takes a lot of the narration verbatim from the novel by Thomas Pynchon that this film is based on. She's a seemingly omniscient, psychedelic chick who navigates the screen on a physical plane, but also enters and leaves Doc's mind through voice-over when she sees fit.

Paul Thomas Anderson directs and this is another movie to add to his seemingly air-tight repertoire (Boogie Nights, There Will be Blood, Magnolia). He lets the actors navigate the screen with minimum editing and allows entire dialogue scenes happen in one take. This is a risky move-- cutting is usually used to increase humor or add suspense, but somehow this movie manages without it. I can't stress enough how humorous Doc's interactions with other characters are. And the more tense scenes thrust Doc into danger with little to no warning and effectively get the heart racing.

I'm sure a lot of people will complain about the complexity of the plot in this one. As Doc makes his way through a haze of pot smoke, conspir

Paul Thomas Anderson's seventh film, Inherent Vice, is a surreal, kinky, and stoned epic of mammoth proportions. The fact that Anderson decided to be the first director adapt the wild prose of Thomas Pynchon is an achievement in of itself. Set in Los Angeles in the early Seventies, Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) awakens from his stony stupor when his ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) tries to find sanctuary from her real-estate mogul boyfriend, his wife, and her boyfriend. In traditional noir fashion, not all is simple as it sounds as a bigger presence is involved with a cavalcade of characters thrown into Doc's world; a heroin-addicted sax player from a surf-rock band (Owen Wilson), a coked- up dentist with the libido of a rabbit (Martin Short), and an LAPD officer/failed actor (Josh Brolin) busting anyone with long-hair and forming a strange love/hate bond with Doc.

The film is a hybrid of comedy, romance, and mystery inspired by the major film-noir flicks of the 1940s, such as Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep and Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear, except that rather than having Sam Spade chain smoke cigarettes and drink gimlets, you have Doc Sportello smoking endless joints and drinking tequila zombies. Anderson's perspective of Los Angeles in the Seventies has been shown before in Boogie Nights in all its hedonistic glory, but in the case of Inherent Vice, he manages to capture the mood of L.A. in an earthy, yet naive glow that mirrors the energy and fear that erupted in the wake of the Manson murders and the rise of Nixon's silent majority. No matter how you slice it, Anderson's film fits in the tapestry of other L.A. noir classics like Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, but with the comedic antics of a Cheech and Chong film or an episode of Gilligan's Island.

Joaquin Phoenix gives a brilliantly-nuanced performance as Pynchon's anti-hero private eye. Unlike his last collaboration with Anderson on The Master, Phoenix reigns in his eccentricity with a relaxed, yet stoned, approach and manages to not make Sportello into a clichéd character of the counterculture thanks to the sharp wit and dialogue of Anderson's screenplay. Josh Brolin's performance as Bigfoot Bjornsen is brilliantly comical and tragic as he tries to walk amongst the Indica-smoke streets with the power and authority of Jack Webb from Dragnet. Katherine Waterston gives a remarkable performance as Doc's former flame as she gives a raw and naked performance that is both sympathetic and mysterious. Despite being on film for only ten minutes, Martin Short gives a performance of comedic gold with the eccentricity and insanity as equally as funny as his alter egos like Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick. Among the other actors who fill out the film, Reese Witherspoon as an assistant D.A. and Doc's part-time love interest, Benecio Del Toro as Doc's confidant and Owen Wilson each give solid performances.

Jonny Greenwood, in his third collaboration with Anderson as composer, creates a score that mirrors the Noir-fashioned sounds of Jerry Goldsmith mixed with the psychedelic sounds of the Laurel Canyon music scene of the early Seventies. Also, the music of Neil Young's Harvest album adds an emotional depth to the romantic interludes between Doc and the women in his life. Robert Elswit's cinematography is as excellent as his previous collaborations with Anderson as he manages to capture the long, strange trip into the underbelly of Los Angeles. Inherent Vice may be at times incoheren

'Straightforward' is not a word I will use in this review to describe Paul Thomas Anderson's newest film Inherent Vice. Lying somewhere at the crossroads between a '70s neo-noir film and an absurdist stoner comedy, this neon-tinged detective story is two-and-a-half hours of increasingly absurd psychedelic mayhem. It's dense, confusing, chaotic, and absolutely riveting in its amorphous plotting and paranoid atmosphere.

Musician Joanna Newsom plays Sortilège, the film's narrator and our guide through the hazy story of hippie-turned-private-detective Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix). The story starts off simply enough, with Doc hired by his ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston) to locate her missing lover, but it all quickly spirals out of control into nearly a dozen different sub-plots featuring neo-Nazis, real estate, dentistry and everything in between.

As the first filmmaker to adapt a Thomas Pynchon novel to the screen, there was a great deal of pressure on Paul Thomas Anderson to successfully translate the source novel's complex prose into a relatively understandable film. Pynchon's work is known for featuring dozens upon dozens of characters involved in a variety of loosely connected plot lines, which makes it nearly impossible to faithfully adapt his novels. Of course, anyone who has seen Anderson's epic ensemble drama Magnolia can confirm that the director is more than capable of seamlessly interweaving countless characters and story lines, and in the case of Inherent Vice Anderson truly does an astounding job of packing so much dense material into a feature-length film. Although the plot is hardly comprehensible upon the first viewing, a second or third viewing reveals that, while intensely complex, the story is entirely coherent thanks to Anderson's clever, brilliantly- crafted script.

That comparison to Magnolia may be misleading, however, as Inherent Vice occupies a unique place in Paul Thomas Anderson's filmography. While Anderson has dabbled in comedy in the past, most notably with his dark rom-com Punch-Drunk Love, his humor has always been a cover for the far more deeply rooted melancholy that permeates all his films. While Inherent Vice's humor does take a backseat to the film's central mystery, it's nonetheless far brasher than that of any other PTA film. Anderson himself compared the film's comic timing to that of '80s screwball comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun, a comparison that is uncharacteristic of his typical style to say the least. While it's surely more a neo-noir than a comedy, the film has more than enough laugh-out-loud moments to make it PTA's funniest movie to date, as well as a unique next step in his evolution as a director.

While Anderson's script does deserve its fair share of credit for the film's absurd humor, what really makes Inherent Vice so funny is the acting, especially that of Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin. Phoenix's portrayal of our perpetually stoned protagonist Doc is universally spot-on; with a wonderfully out-of-it expression frozen on his face, Doc stumbles through the movie dazed and confused in a marijuana-induced haze. The smallest details, such as Doc aggressively slapping himself in the face mid-conversation to focus, are what make his performance so consistently enjoyable. Brolin, meanwhile, steals the show as hippie-hating cop Christian "Bigfoot" Björnsen, who both antagonizes and collaborates with Doc to unravel the film's tangled web o