Review of Inherent Vice (2014) by Jeff B — 21 Jan 2015

Inherent-ly muddled, Paul Thomas Anderson's roll of the Vice satisfies Thomas Pynchon fans and few others. Of course, this was the point. On the Penguin Press website, the publisher teases a work that's "Part-noir, part-psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon...private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog." So far as realizing this specific vision, one of this generation's most gifted auteurs succeeds to a startlingly perfect 5-Star degree. For filmgoers in general though, especially those who qualified as square in the 60s or weren't even born yet, Inherent Vice proves only mildly entertaining. In fact, the film tends to get downright boring at points. If Raymond Chandler helped to hard-boil detective fiction through his character Phillip Marlowe in the 40s and Robert Altman somehow satirized and elevated the genre at the same time with the idiosyncratic Me Generation film classic The Long Goodbye in the 70s, then Inherent Vice continues this tradition and takes the detective story to the next level--we just don't know what or where that is. Purposely meandering and muddied with sudden Spartan moments of crystal-clear clarity, much like a drug trip and/or a lost soul trying to find their place in a changing culture and society, the story proudly sports a Byzantine plot navigated by a stoner. We get it. Most of us just don't enjoy it.

In this 1970s-set R-rated dramedy based on the novel by the author of V and Gravity's Rainbow, detective Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend through a drug-fueled Los Angeles.

Oh, like all of Anderson's films, it's always interesting. The director's telltale stylistic touches pop up to mostly great effect. Working against type, an amazing cast brings some wild characters to life. His long takes, however, actually feel long for a change. Even after weaving toward the solution, only one thing remains certain about Inherent Vice: It assumes the title of Most Divisive film on Anderson's resume from Punch-Drunk Love.

Bottom line: Bogie Nights.