Review of Inherent Vice (2014) by Spangle — 16 Jan 2015

I love films like this for the most part and Inherent Vice is no exception to that. Perpetually in a drug induced haze, Detective Larry "Doc" Sportello, portrayed brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix, stumbles around trying to solve a case he cannot quite wrap his head around.

Hell, there may not even be a case. But, what is certain is that he has no idea what is going on and neither does the audience. Impossible to follow and impossible to wrap your head around, Inherent Vice is a film that gives you a bunch of different puzzle pieces from different puzzles and tells you to put them together.

Yet, in spite of that, I loved it. Our confusion mirrors that of Doc and really makes the film and enjoyable watch. It also does not hurt that it has a stellar cast on top of Joaquin Phoenix, including Benecio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Katherine Waterston, Joanna Newsom, Michael K.

Williams, and Martin Short. No one other than Phoenix has that much screen time, but what they are given, they knock out of the park. The direction and writing from Paul Thomas Anderson are stellar as always.

The film also does a great job capturing the drug-induced era it is set in and is a beautiful snapshot of the less than nice areas of Los Angeles in the 1970's. If you are comfortable not knowing what the hell is going on, but are willing to still sit there and try to piece together this possibly unsolvable "case", Inherent Vice is the film for you.

Though it may not make much sense, Inherent Vice is just a really enjoyable and really, really well made film that even if the "plot" does not do it for you, there should be enough here for you to appreciate.