Inherent Vice (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles detective Larry “Doc” Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.

My Take – I guess my expectations were just too high for this film. Paul Thomas Anderson is a great filmmaker when he uses his own voice, and unfortunately this doesn’t seem like a case here. There is something about the overall tone and production design of this 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 the bullshit, mainly because it never frees itself from being just strange. The story takes place 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, 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 glory, but here 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 instead filled with the comedic antics. But unfortunately it seems Anderson doesn’t want us to know what’s going on, or at least doesn’t want us to care. 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. Their are many scenes where the characters dwell on nothing but talk in a noir inspired style (which I usually love by the way) whose only purpose is to read plot to us and maybe put us to sleep. The dialogue was so off-putting, like every average conversation had to be spoken in a Noir- esque fashion which ended up sounding false and unemotional. I understand it’s supposed to be noir, but it just doesn’t work for this movie. The first half seems like a Wes Anderson movie and ended very PTA style. 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 cliched character of the counterculture.

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. 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. On the whole “Inherent Vice” is a strange film. The film starts of well enough, and Phoenix is as good and reliable as he ever is. And then the bafflement starts, too many characters are introduced too soon, and we are left with long periods of absolutely nothing going on other than PTA trying to channel a narrative. I love PTA and I love artistic films that aren’t afraid to go out of the norm and do something new and different. But this wasn’t artistic as much as it was just disappointing. It’s a bummer cause this could’ve been an amazing movie- Actually no it couldn’t. But the trailers and the hype made it seem like it could’ve been great. 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.