Review of Inherent Vice (2014) by Drago? C — 24 Jan 2015

Intentionally Rambling and Incoherent, Inherent Vice is a performance driven ensemble cast gem and an attempt by Anderson to return to his cinematic roots, firmly grounded in the seventies. The movie itself, is like a thick smoke cloud of greenest kush, a psychotropic, hallucinogenic road trip through the glitz, squalor and paranoia of the hippie end days. Centred around the demented drug-fuelled performance of Joaquin Phoenix the film assembles a motley crew of movie stars ( Witherspoon, Del Toro, Brolin), TV stars(Maya Rudolph, Sasha Piertese) singer songwriters(Joanna Newsom, Sasha Piertese again), MMA fighters (Keith Jardine, Owen Wilson*), pornstars (Beladonna, Martin Short*) and Eric Roberts (Eric Roberts) to back him up. And that they do, the movie, however incoherent and occasionally dull is nonetheless gripping in its insane complexity. Add to that the period soundtrack composed by a member of Radiohead and the nowadays rare cinematographic practice of shooting the movie actually on film (ok, on 35mm film, that IS rare...) but exaggeratedly chock full of close-ups and you have a crazy fucking cobbled up mess destined for cultdom like the now famous Big Lebowski.

Or do you? The problem is that however wilfully incoherent the movie is, it manages to be a bit too much. So much that it's really hard to follow at times for somebody who is actually trying, to say nothing about the general audience.

Worth Watching? Maybe. Worth Watching on Drugs? Definitely.

*that was a joke.