Inherent Vice

Plot synopsis:
The movie opens on a rickety beach house. It is the year 1970 in Gordita Beach, a fictional town in Los Angeles. A young woman, Shasta Fay (Katherine Waterston), walks to this home; we are told she is the homeowner's "ex-old lady" and "Tonight she was all in flatland gear, hair a lot shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore shed never look." These are passages from Thomas Pynchon's novel and this eloquent prose is inserted throughout the movie. Shasta's ex-boyfriend is revealed as Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), who is both private investigator and hippie/dope head who always seems a bit dazed and confused. Shasta tells him about her new lover, Mickey Wolfmann, and asks Doc to help prevent a plot by Mickey's wife and her lover to have Mickey abducted and committed to an insane asylum. He asks why she came to his place and she suspects she is being watched and by showing up at his home, it just looks like a secret rendezvous.Wolfmann is a wealthy real estate developer that Doc remembers from TV ads. He watches one where, in his drug-state, Wolfmann appears as Doc's arch rival, the police officer, Bigfoot. Doc calls his Aunt Reet, who tells him that Wolfmann is technically Jewish but wants to be a Nazi. He is associated with white supremacists and has a lot of ties to criminals.We meet Sortilège (Joanna Newsom) who is serving as our narrator. She tells Doc to change his hair; we later see it with pieces of blue ribbon tied into it.Doc meets with Tariq Khalil (Michael Kenneth Williams), a member of a Black Panther-esque group, who hires Doc to help him find one of Mickey's bodyguards, Glen Charlock, a white supremacist who he met in jail who owes him money. Khalil discusses the history of Los Angeles land Mexicans losing their homes so the Dodger Stadium can be built, American Indians being kicked out for the Music Center, his own neighborhood gone to build Channel View Estates (Wolfmann's real estate). Doc writes on his pad with stoned out notes like PARANOIA ALERT and HALLUCINATING.Doc visits Channel View Estates, followed by dozens of police officers that do a poor job at remaining hidden. Doc enters the home, which ends up being a brothel. Behind a door with a cartoon drawing of a naked woman, a prostitute named Jade emerges and tells about the $14.95 special on eating pussy. She demonstrates on her colleague, Bambi, while Doc searches the premises for Charlock but he is knocked on the head and collapses, theatrically.He awakes in a police station where he is interrogated about the murder of Charlock and the disappearance of both Mickey Wolfmann and Shasta Fay. He mocks the FBI agents conducting the interrogation, each picking their nose at different intervals (the film has an over-the-top goofy tone). Doc is helped by an attorney, Sauncho Smilax (Benicio Del Toro) but he is not an actual criminal lawyer and is willing to help the police OR Doc indiscriminately. Bigfoot Bjornsen (Josh Brolin) of the LAPD enters and its clear that Doc and he have a love/hate relationship despite a deep respect for each other. A running joke is Bigfoot is always simulating oral sex on bananas or popsicles, which intrigues Doc in a nonjudgmental way. Bigfoot tries to get Doc to become an informant for the police but he does not want to.Doc is also hired by Hope Harlingen (Jena Malone), who is looking for her missing husband, Coy, a saxophone player. She tells Doc about her own drug problems and how drugs have ruined her teeth and made her breasts hairy (she shows Doc a photo of her daughter at which he screams). She tells him she's now working as a drug counselor.Doc makes his way to the Wolfmann residence and meets his wife, Sloane (Serena Scott Thomas), as well as her lover, the hunky yoga instructor, Riggs Warbling (Andrew Simpson). The house is run on debauchery including a housekeeper who is openly willing to perform sexual favors for guests. Doc tours the house and finds a closet filled with ties, each with a naked woman drawn on them. Each woman is a live-in houseguest one of them is his own ex-girlfriend, Shasta, who has now gone missing.Back at the police station, Doc expresses his distaste for the police and seems to be afraid of officers.Doc meets with Deputy D.A. Penny Kimball (Reese Witherspoon), who he also is having an affair with on the side. She asks him about Wolfmann and Sasha's disappearances and the murder of Charlock. She suggests maybe Doc has killed him given that he is always so drug-induced, he passes out and doesn't remember things; he has no defense against this hypothesis. She directs him to the FBI, who take him to an estate; among the guests is a man with a swastika on his face. Doc spots Coy Herlingen there; the two speak privately about the Golden Fang, which Coy reveals is the name of a secret organization with shady business. It is also the name of their boat which is used to smuggle heroin into the country.When he leaves the station, the secretary, Petunia (Maya Rudolph), tells him he has a message. It is from Jade who apologizes for setting him up and tells him to be aware of the Golden Fang.Jade meets Doc in an alley where she explains about the Golden Fang, a group that is smuggling drugs into the country. He then runs into Coy Harlingen, who is not dead at all. Coy is a saxophone player in a local surf band who is hiding undercover at a house on Topanga Canyon no one recognizes him because he plays bass with the band that resides there. Coy disappears in the fog and Doc struggles to find his way out (a metaphor but also shows the world from his drugged-out point of view).Sauncho Smilax, the attorney, gives Doc more information on the Golden Fang, including the fact that it was stuck in the Bermuda Triangle for 50 years. Doc spots the boat in the ocean.Doc is watching a Richard Nixon rally on TV; Coy Harlingen appears on the screen, protesting Hitlers speech. When he talks to Coy about it, he learns that Coy dabbled in Communism years ago and that he is now a police informant. He explains that he fears for his life and now only wants to return to his wife and daughter.At his home, Doc receives a postcard from Shasta that reminds him of an experience they had there with a Ouija board. Sortilège is there, helping them use the board, but they don't seem to acknowledge her (flirting with the idea that she is a figment of Docs imagination). The board spells out a phone number and when Shasta and Doc call it, it leads them to the Howdy Doper office downtown. They visit it in person but it is closed; they wait outside the building, snuggling up in the cold.Doc goes to the same building from his memory and waits in the office of a dentist, Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd, D.D.S. (Martin Short, who is scene-stealing). Rudy is hedonistic, constantly having sexual relations with his staff and snorting cocaine. He is later joined by Japonica Fenway, a young 18-year-old girl, who is the daughter of a rich man named Crocker Fenway. She drives the group home, despite them all being high on cocaine; they are pulled over by a police officer who explains her headlights are off; Japonica says she doesn't need them because she can see in the dark. The officer continues, telling them that any group over three people may be indicative of a cult; a high Dr. Rudy worries that its Charles Manson again. The police officer lets them go, not realizing they are all obviously high on cocaine.Bigfoot meets with Doc in a restaurant he tells him that Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd has just been found dead with a neck injury fang bites. Bigfoot also informs Doc that there may be a link between Puck Beaverton (another one of Wolfmann's bodyguards) and Coy Harlingen. The two have a long conversation about how the city is changing for the worse Doc mentions extra work is drying up. Later, Doc watches television at home and sees Doc working as an extra on a police television series (in the vein of Dragnet).Doc goes to a casino hours away to find Puck Beaverton. It is run by a sort of cult, including a man with a swastika on his face. Doc notices two FBI agents escorting Wolfmann through the premises; he manages to talk with him and learns that Wolfmann has given up on the state of the world and feels guilty for the negativity that his real-estate business has caused; he now is a happy member of the cult.When Doc returns to Los Angeles, he is greeted by Shasta who has returned. She says she was up north but he points out the puka shells she are wearing are from the beach. She confesses to being on a three-hour tour (i.e., on the Golden Fang) and that she was brought along as inherent vice. She admits to not knowing what this means. We are told by Sortilège in voice-over that inherent vice is listed as an insurance policy as something that will inevitably be damaged like chocolate which will melt or glass which will break. In other words, a sort of defect in a product, which will lead to it being deteriorated; if the defect is not noticeable and nobody has been warned of it, neither the insurance company or the insured are liable for any claim.Doc meets with Penny again who is willing to provide him with confidential files he reviews them and learns that Adrian Prussia, a loan shark, is paid by the police department to kill people for them one of their victims was Docs former partner. Prussia is tied to the Golden Fang and he learns that Glen Charlock was involved with a deal which is how he ended up dead.At his place, Shasta and Doc engage in a conversation and when she emerges from another room, she is completely naked. Shasta says that Doc should pretend she is a Manson girl, easily duped and controlled by a man, all while rubbing her nipples. As their conversation continues, she rubs his leg, sexually, and then bends over the couch all in a long, six-minute unbroken shot. It concludes with them having sex.Doc visits Adrian Prussia but is abducted and drugged by Puck Beaverton. He wakes up, handcuffed. He manages to escape, killing both Puck and Adrian. Bigfoot appears and rescues Doc but after driving him home, Doc learns that he has been set up and all the smuggled heroin from the Golden Fang has been planted in the trunk of his car.Instead of incurring the wrath of the drug dealers, Doc hides the heroin in his house and arranges for the drugs to be returned to Crocker Fenway (Japonicas father), in exchange for Coy's freedom.Sauncho and Doc go to the ocean and watch the Golden Fang becomes repossessed. Coy is finally reunited with his family.At the end of the closing credits is the quote, "Under the paving-stones, the beach!"

Tags: comedy, neo noir, murder, anti war, cult, violence, flashback, absurd, satire, revenge

Review:
The movie is very hard to follow and needs a second viewing to fully grasp the whole thing.My first impression is much like Joaquin Phoenix's character, a hazy pot soaked mind looking for a murderer with Bigfoot's help.
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, such as Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep and Fritz Lang's Ministry of Fear, except that rather than having Sam Spade chain smoke cigarettes and drink gimlets, you have Doc Sportello smoking endless joints and drinking tequila zombies.
It's dense, confusing, chaotic, and absolutely riveting in its amorphous plotting and paranoid atmosphere.Musician Joanna Newsom plays Sortilège, the film's narrator and our guide through the hazy story of hippie-turned-private-detective Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix).
The story starts off simply enough, with Doc hired by his ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston) to locate her missing lover, but it all quickly spirals out of control into nearly a dozen different sub-plots featuring neo-Nazis, real estate, dentistry and everything in between.As the first filmmaker to adapt a Thomas Pynchon novel to the screen, there was a great deal of pressure on Paul Thomas Anderson to successfully translate the source novel's complex prose into a relatively understandable film.
Of course, anyone who has seen Anderson's epic ensemble drama Magnolia can confirm that the director is more than capable of seamlessly interweaving countless characters and story lines, and in the case of Inherent Vice Anderson truly does an astounding job of packing so much dense material into a feature-length film.
Although the plot is hardly comprehensible upon the first viewing, a second or third viewing reveals that, while intensely complex, the story is entirely coherent thanks to Anderson's clever, brilliantly- crafted script.That comparison to Magnolia may be misleading, however, as Inherent Vice occupies a unique place in Paul Thomas Anderson's filmography.
While it's surely more a neo-noir than a comedy, the film has more than enough laugh-out-loud moments to make it PTA's funniest movie to date, as well as a unique next step in his evolution as a director.While Anderson's script does deserve its fair share of credit for the film's absurd humor, what really makes Inherent Vice so funny is the acting, especially that of Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin.
Bigfooot's many idiosyncrasies, including the inadvertently suggestive way he eats frozen bananas and his not-quite-mastery of Japanese, make him by far one of the funniest and most colorful characters of the film, and Josh Brolin plays him with just the right mix of hotheadedness and cluelessness.Despite Inherent Vice's one-of-a-kind style and atmosphere, it's still ultimately not going to work for a whole lot of people.
Noir films usually blend exposition with character development in their narration--The male protagonist narrates and his beautifully crafted sentences highlight how tough he is and how fed up with everything he's become--but Inherent Vice takes a different route entirely.
To watch actors dryly deliver page after page of plot that no one comprehends or is interested in while they imitate the acting style of old Hollywood noir films and stoner comedies is not why I go to the movies.
That's a good place to start, eh?The New York Film Festival press and audiences given the gift of a first look at Paul Thomas Anderson's hotly anticipated "Inherent Vice" starring Joaquin Phoenix and an all-star cast.
I remember how they make me feel."Paul Thomas Anderson, 10/5/2014, "On Cinema Masterclass", New York Film FestivalIt's nearly impossible to talk about Inherent Vice, PTA's new stoner noir, without providing some context.It's crucial to know, for example, that the film is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel.
Finally, to really grasp Inherent Vice, it'd be useful to know PTA's relationship with plot, which can best be understood by reading the quote above and thinking about the trajectory of his career (a career marked by films that have become more and more "plotless").So, when we put all of this together, what do we get?
Perhaps it can best be summed up by the words of a girl who sat behind me at PTA's "On Cinema" talk at the New York Film Festival the day after Inherent Vice's world premiere: "It was good, but don't ask me to tell you what happened." This confusion and general inaccessibility will turn people off, much like The Master left some people enamored and others disappointed and unfulfilled.Another important piece of context surrounding Inherent Vice, as always with highly anticipated films, is the prism of expectation.
This film tells the story of a private detective in Los Angeles who investigates the disappearance of his former girlfriend and a rich real estate tycoon."Inherent Vice" has a super incoherent plot.
"Inherent Vice" is the first outright comedy that Paul Thomas Anderson has made and it's only the second film he's made based on someone else's work, (in this case Thomas Pynchon, whose dialogue he has faithfully reproduced).
It's the kind of surreal, psychedelic comedy movies don't do these days and in that respect it's another throwback to independent Ameriican movie-making in the seventies.As well as Phoenix and Brolin, both at the top of their game, there is Reese Witherspoon as a promiscuous Assistant DA, an amazing Martin Short as a very peculiar dentist, (and on screen for much too short a time), Owen Wilson as some kind of whistle-blower, (at least I guessed that was what he was), not to mention cameos from the likes of Jeannie Berlin and Jefferson Mays.
It's this semi-ground breaking cinema that shows Paul Thomas Anderson is not scared to have fun and be serious at the same time and doesn't need to play it safe or do what you expect at the movies and neither is the original writer of the book Thomas Pynchon and boy are they a match!
Joaquin phoenix is perfect as Larry Doc Sportello a stoner detective looking into the kidnappers of his ex-girls beau and real estate tycoon Mikey Wolfmann they both apparently just go missing and this leads Doc to a very many colorful character semi stereotypes of the 1960-1970's Era which all seem to center around something known as the golden fang what it is couldn't tell you, but what's apparent in this movie is the dying of a culture and all the things that go in between in late capitalism.
and anyone who has ever done drugs knows they're not entirely sensible, like a dream) Just treat this one of those things and it's gold; SO happy I read the other reviews and knew to go in open-minded.In an effort to trailer it without any spoilers, Inherent Vice is Paul Thomas Anderson doing the big Lebowski which is a movie that if you don't like then that's totally cool, but I hate you and you're wrong.It also happens to be based off a clearly badass author (my buddy Tommmy Pynchon, whose biography is worth knowing) (he's confusing so I hear the way to go is V, then Gravity's Rainbow).Summary 9.3/10 but on the record 10 because this deserves better than 7.7 (which is its score c.
There are colors in this film that I never thought I'd see again.From a story telling perspective, Inherent Vice almost seems like a Terrence Malick movie at some points.
I've seen this movie twice, both because I'm a PT Anderson fan, and because on first viewing, I came out scratching my head, and I thought that I might be missing its merits.As opposed to other films of its ilk that have an intricate, even deliberately convoluted plot (The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, The Big Lebowski, and maybe Kiss Me Deadly or other noir), Inherent Vice isn't wall-to-wall engaging scenes.
But after watching Paul Thomas Andersons sublime work based on one of his books, I must say, it would be a sad state of affairs to leave this world without having read some of Mr. Pynchon's words.This weird tale of corruption, sex, greed, counter-culture and lost chances may rank among the finest recreations of the much epitomized sixties in America.
Wow!Just finished watching Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film "Inherent Vice" and thought it was incredible!At it's heart it's a 70's film noir that captures the spirit and feel of the 70's perfectly but in it's whole it is sooo much more than that.It's a rumble tumble roller coaster of a watch that whilst conveying a sense of the main protagonists tenuous drug fuelled grasp on what is going on still manages to maintain a coherent narrative right to the end.It's got elements of classic film noir,70's counter culture movies (the voice over reminds me both of classic noir and the radio station from "Vanishing Point"),70's "cinema of the paranoid" and dashes of "The Big Lebowski".All the while there's an underlying religious parable, (that I think I'm gonna have to watch it again to fully grasp what he was getting at) with one image in particular mirroring "The Last Supper", themes of resurrection and many other little references and images relating to Christian dogma.To top it all off one character virtually transforms into a metaphor for "the man" (which he always was throughout the film but it's just more blatant in the scene I'm referring to) without it seeming clumsy or forced.Oh god.Love,love loved this film!.
Almost anyone anywhere in need of a good time and high entertainment value would be a fool to miss 'Inherent Vice'.Paul Thomas Anderson has woven a seamless, energetic if not entirely understandable film into a masterwork of art and beauty.
The story is about a stoner P.I. and his quest to help his ex-girlfriend figure out what to do about her married lover and his cheating wife and all his money.Many times just as I thought I was catching on to what was happening and had figured out where the movie was going it suddenly took a left turn and went down a completely different yet more strange and bizarre path then it had already been on.Joaquin Phoenix plays his character so well it is hard to believe he is not truly Sportello.
After the huge disappointment I took with The Master, director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson redeems himself with Inherent Vice, an unusual hybrid of classic "noir" and "head movie" which challenges expectations and gradually involves us into the clichés from both styles, which are somehow transformed into something fresh and fascinating.
The film is a faithful adaption of Pynchon's late 00s novel but with a few minor sub-plots (such as the Las Vegas trip and the bets/claims) removed, not that they mattered really.Joaquin Phoenix is one of my favourite actors and this movie - much like his previous one with PTA, The Master - is reason why.
"Mickey" Wolfmann.The Film was Interesting to say the least it was the character of Doc was interesting as Hippie Doper and Private Investigator he goes on a crazy case trying to discover where his ex-girlfriend Shasta disappeared to it is not a Solidified story line its kinda all of the place also it show's a perspective of a Doper in a Good way though great performances from everyone and Del Toro's Character even though he had a Small role also the characters were Layered and Yet Quirky also really loved the 1970's setting Overall A Fascinating take on Doping Culture From Paul Thomas Anderson .Great Production design from David Crank(Lake City) fantastic costume design from Mark Bridges(Silver Linings Playbook) , Musical By Jonny Greenwood(There Will Be Blood),Cinematography By Robert Elswitt(Nightcrawler) Amazing Writing/Direction from Paul Thomas Anderson(The Master).
The suggestion that you need to read the novel the film is based on in order to understand the movie.Once again, that's not how filmmaking is meant to work.The film is meant to be an adaption of the book that is accessible, in a standalone fashion, to people who encounter the story solely through the medium of cinema.If your audience needs to do supplemental reading - in this case, the entire book the film is an adaptation of - then the filmmaker has failed at filmmaking 101, which is supposed to be about creating a cinematic version of the source material, not some sort of filmed addition to the original work that is incoherent as a standalone artwork.Just in case you're wondering, the reason I gave it 4 stars was because the cinematography here is up to Paul Thomas Anderson's usual high standards even if the storytelling isn't..
I have seen The Master like a million times now and it's now one of my favorite films about friendship and ego.So after that we hear PTA is gonna tackle a Stoner Detective Thomas Pynchon novel (Inherent Vice).
Having said that the movie is VERY re-watchable in my opinion and I still recommend a second viewing.Joaquin Phoenix is amazing as doc and is the center of the movie, but I think Josh Brolin's character (Bigfoot) is one of my favorites of all PTA films.A little side note: Very misleading trailer I'm glad I didn't see it before the movie.
The trailer makes this look like The Big Lebowski, although Inherent Vice does have a lot of funny moments involving weed and such, it's a very different tone.Love this movie (9/10) and MOTTO PANUKEIKU!
I very much liked his movie "The Master" and "Inherent vice" is even better and more sophisticated in a way.First I have to give it all to the actors - Joaquin Phoenix, Katherine Waterston, Josh Brolin.
It's a strange feeling to get after watching a Paul Thomas Anderson flick, but his latest odyssey (this film is a very long 2 and a half hours), Inherent Vice, is a film that will leave you cold and empty even though it possesses most of the qualities we've come to expect from PTA as one of the modern eras most accomplished and unique filmmakers.
Adapting Thomas Pynchon's seemingly un-filmable book of the same name is likely the reason for why Inherent Vice feels like a well-made trip into nothing and is also perhaps where the film succeeds most in its telling of a tale that just may well exist to frustrate and entertain in equal measure.I challenge anyone to absolutely gather what is going on in this depraved tale of informants, tycoons, hippies, FBI agents, boats and crazy dentists among other things, as it's nigh on impossible to keep a track of what's going on about halfway through the movie and by then you'll know if your digging this wild ride or wanting out and I suggest that many may find the film almost irredeemably unwatchable even though it's one of the finest recreations of the 70's seen in the last few years.
From the sporadic song listings, the fine dream like cinematography (with added smoke) from the always impressive Robert Elswit and the often haunting score from Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood, Inherent Vice presents a finely produced veneer but no matter the values of this or the impressive acting turns there's nothing to transform the material into anything classic, which we have now come to expect from PTA.After great success together in a professional sense with their collaboration on the Master, it's fantastic to see Joaquin Phoenix (with the wildest facial hair seen on screen in some time) and PTA work together once more and Phoenix is on impressive form as Doc, a The Dude like character that just wants simple things from life but ends up in all types of sticky situations.
Nevertheless, director Paul Thomas Anderson takes a stab with this 2009 novel, 'Inherent Vice', resulting in what can only be described as 'trippy'.When his ex-girlfriend reemerges to appeal for his help, hippie P.I Larry 'Doc' Sportello sets off on a quest to find her missing boyfriend, land developer Micky Wolfmann.
And ended up wasting two and half hours watching what looked like an attempt to do a prequel to The Big Lebowski that went wrong in every way possible.The film is based on a book, so I assume there was a plot buried in there somewhere under all the mumbled, slurred or whispered dialog, confusing and disconnected scenes that go nowhere and cardboard acting.
But our lovelorn detective never did quite get over Shasta, and so the affable stoner finds himself ambling around the underworld, pulling on random threads until a massive, byzantine conspiracy unravels faster than Doc's dope-addled brain (and his "city dump of a memory") can possibly process all the revelations.The plot against Mickey Wolfmann mushrooms ever outward to include a sad-eyed saxophone player (Owen Wilson) on the lam after working as an undercover agitator infiltrating subversive grass-roots organizations, nose-picking FBI agents bearing the Book of Mormon and even a sinister consortium of depraved, heroin-smuggling dentists calling themselves The Golden Fang.Narrated by Doc's sprightly assistant Sortilege (Joanna Newsom) –who after seeing the film three times now I'm still not sure isn't just a figment of his imagination– Inherent Vice drifts in a delirious haze, positioning Phoenix's groovy P.I. in a series of duets with a dazzling array of Special Guest Stars spinning patented Pynchon wordplay.We've seen films about zonked protagonists before, but in the case of Inherent Vice it's the movie itself that feels stoned.
The book and film aren't really about the plot that the audience is desperately trying to follow, it's about the paranoia and the fear of unknown during the transitional period from the 60's to the 70's, with the war on drugs, the hippy life style coming to an end (poor doc), the Charles Manson killings all happening at the same time.
I realize that I maybe shouldn't be writing this review, seeing as I have seen Inherent Vice, the new film by Paul Thomas Anderson, just once.