Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)

[Henry Gale]

Ah screw it, I can't just post one:



............... Or two:



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IMDb / Wiki

[Henry Gale]

Fucking fantastic. Damn.

The fact that, of all of his films, this seems to be the one that might be Anderson's most critically divisive out of the gate is kind of staggering to me. But whatever happened along the way to bump my expectations and enthusiasm a little lower than I would've liked still in its own way managed to do wonders for me once the film actually started before me and the first sequence unfolded as awesomely as it did. I even love most of if not all of his work, but never without my reservations here and there, so it was an even greater surprise that to my eyes and mind this played basically note-perfect throughout. Just mesmerizingly good at times.

I guess you either vibe with it or you don't, find some of it unbelievably hysterical or hysterically unbelievable (or whatever, I don't want to know what you think, person who hates this), but all I know is whatever it is, it was absolutely for me. I will watch it again and again and likely fall a little bit more for it every time. Initiate soundtrack to have it play all over again in my head!

**** / 9.3

[eternity]

Really funny flick - I don't see how it's in any way divisive yet people I talk to seem to have genuinely hated it. It's a detective movie if the detective is on drugs the whole time and doesn't really understand what's going on around him. Basically The Long Goodbye for the aughts. It overstays its welcome and I can't imagine that it would lose anything from trimming 15 minutes or so, but it's not as hard to understand as people have made it out to be. It's weird, but in a palatable way. It's American Hustle for people who hated American Hustle.

[Pop Trash]

It's American Hustle for people who hated American Hustle.

haha I didn't hate American Hustle but I'm still perplexed by the love that movie got. I still meet people irl that thought it was great.

[Mysterious Dude]

I'm going to spend the whole movie looking for Thomas Pynchon's cameo.

[Weems]

Having really enjoyed the book, I didn't like this, and it's cemented for me that PTA is on track to become perhaps the biggest waste of directorial talent ever. It's just another indifferent viewing experience, however stylish at times. The structure and rhythms, storytelling coherence and intensity - all way off.

[Pop Trash]

Having really enjoyed the book, I didn't like this, and it's cemented for me that PTA is on track to become perhaps the biggest waste of directorial talent ever. It's just another indifferent viewing experience, however stylish at times. The structure and rhythms, storytelling coherence and intensity - all way off.

What does that even mean? If he's a talented director how is he wasted as a talented director?

[Henry Gale]

What does that even mean? If he's a talented director how is he wasted as a talented director?

I'm guessing wasted potential of the sorts of stories some would rather have him doing.

But if anyone over time still considers this minor Anderson, then I think that speaks to how truly great a career he really is building for himself.

[Weems]

What does that even mean? If he's a talented director how is he wasted as a talented director?

Because lately it's not being applied to creating great films, in my opinion. Like in tennis, Marcelo Rios was a great talent as far as his technique, peak playing ability, and so forth, but didn't accomplish enough in the major tournaments, just like I find PTA enormously gifted and knowledgeable at the craft of filmmaking, but hampered by a frequent failure to translate that into a satisfying artistic artifact. Or like how Updike could craft a beautiful sentence as easy as breathing, but I find all of his novels too minor and negligible compared to something like Sabbath's Theater or Blood Meridian.

[Gittes]

Just wanted to pop in quickly and say that this film is magic. I wanted to dive right back in as soon as it was over. Lovely.

"The visualized marijuana fumes are too insistent to be decoration or comic relief; they’re the very medium through which we see what is going on, an implied shared high by which we participate in Doc’s dream and in the midst of which we too wake up."

That quote is from Geoffrey O'Brien's great piece on the movie.

[number8]

The Long Goodbye indeed.

I don't think the plot is that hard to understand as some people claim, especially since there's recap and exposition every 20 minutes or so, but it's clearly deliberately obfuscating itself to achieve that meandering paranoid haze that reflects Doc's journey.

Mainly I felt redundant for getting high before seeing the movie.

[number8]

Also, wow, did they color-correct and de-grain the shit out of the trailers, or what? There've been so many movies in the past decade trying to approximate 1970s cinema, and I think this might be the most on point one.

[Stay Puft]

The Varsity was showing this in 70mm, which was pretty cool. Turns out none of it was actually shot on 70mm, though, unlike The Master, which is too bad.

A lot of fun, though. But, like The Master, I left impressed with the film on a technical level (and, once again, with the soundtrack... oh my god, it was brilliant), but ultimately felt it was overlong and the content didn't resonate with me. I guess I sort of agree with Weems on that, but it's still stylish and funny and enjoyable enough.

[Pop Trash]

I think I enjoyed this but man, Phoenix's mumbling + Anderson/Pynchon's dense dialogue is sure hard as hell to understand. It reminded me of the problems I had with McConaughey + Nolan's exposition in Interstellar. I can't help but wonder if Downey Jr. would have been a better fit.

I'm really gonna have to see this again to fully judge it. Having not read the book, I can't tell if the disjointed (no pun intended) qualities stem from Anderson or Pynchon. Occasionally I found myself not really giving a shit about what was going on up on screen.

There were a lot of walkouts in my theater, which I completely predicted, however I do live in the East Bay which has a high tolerance for drugs and weirdness (not to mention plots about shady California developers). If Berkeley can't handle this, I'm not sure the rest of the country will either.

[Ivan Drago]

Seeing this tonight. I'm so excited and incredibly nervous all at once.

[Mal]

Well it sure is a trip. And I almost laughed out hysterically when Benicio Del Toro showed up. Three hour tour.
I definitely agree about this being as good and close as it gets to mimicing 70s cinema. As much as I wasn't totally in love with the film, it still had me in its hands the entire way and I was willing to go down whatever path it took me. I love Phoenix in this film as well.

[Pop Trash]

Having really enjoyed the book, I didn't like this, and it's cemented for me that PTA is on track to become perhaps the biggest waste of directorial talent ever. It's just another indifferent viewing experience, however stylish at times. The structure and rhythms, storytelling coherence and intensity - all way off.

uh...you realize you gave it five stars right?

[Weems]

uh...you realize you gave it five stars right?

Weird. I must have accidentally hit a button.

[TGM]

This was just so weird, and so bizarre, and I loved every single minute of it. And god damn, Josh Brolin is just a genius of an actor. Brilliant comedy on display here, just absolutely brilliant. I totally got Big Lebowski vibes watching this, and even if it's not necessarily being the best well received today, I can definitely see it going on to become quite a cult classic some years down the line.

[Ivan Drago]

This was just so weird, and so bizarre, and I loved every single minute of it. And god damn, Josh Brolin is just a genius of an actor. Brilliant comedy on display here, just absolutely brilliant. I totally got Big Lebowski vibes watching this, and even if it's not necessarily being the best well received today, I can definitely see it going on to become quite a cult classic some years down the line.

Agreed.

It's PTA's weakest film for its incoherent story, but his visual style, humor and the acting make it really fun to watch.

[Spinal]

Never thought I'd say this about a P.T. Anderson movie, but I thought this was straight-up bad. It felt like it was about 4 hours long. The humor didn't land for me. The plot was thoroughly uninvolving. I have no idea what was attractive about this source material.

[ledfloyd]

I feel like "incoherent story" is kind of a strange criticism for a Pynchon adaptation. Has the guy ever written anything remotely coherent?

[Pop Trash]

I feel like "incoherent story" is kind of a strange criticism for a Pynchon adaptation. Has the guy ever written anything remotely coherent?

I'm kind of with Mike D'Angelo about these things though. Books and movies work in different ways and these recent po-mo lit adaptations as of late (Cosmopolis, Cloud Atlas, Inherent Vice...hell even On the Road) just haven't translated well to the screen. The beauty in these books is in the language and too often the filmmakers are way too faithful in getting that language on screen either in dialogue or over use of v/o, and it seems clumsy. Once again, this reminds me of why The Shining is one of the best page-to-screen adaptations despite what Stephen King thinks.

[ledfloyd]

True. Shining is a great adaptation. I actually loved Cosmopolis though.

[dreamdead]

This one has moments of mad-bonkers brilliance, mostly located in the first third, when the film is most overtly concerned with slapstick. We saw it on Saturday, though, and whole scenes are rapidly fading from view, so I'm worried that it's one of Anderson's most ephemeral films. Some of that is partly by design, but the film, while capturing the mood of the 70s, seems a little too slight.

I found Witherspoon, Brolin, and Hong Chau to be the MVPs, delivering their scenes with intensity and commitment. I especially liked how Chau got to be self-aware of her "Oriental" enigma and morphed in her intentions throughout the film. Phoenix is affable and charming, and Waterston's big scene (which articulated why a bigger name actress wasn't this role) is striking in how she draws out Phoenix's rage; it's an awkward moment for an audience, but feels utterly natural and character-specific.

The rest of the film, though. I don't know. I didn't bond with The Master that much, but it's grown in esteem during reflection. This one seems very much like a transition film to another big project. Sometimes those projects, like Wong's Chungking Express, end up giving birth to their own legacy but I have a harder time seeing it here.