Inherent Vice (2014) Review - Director Series
There was a time when The Master was shelved indefinitely. During that time, Paul was attempting to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, though he wasn’t having success with that endeavor.
When Pynchon’s latest novel, Inherent Vice, came out, Paul connected with it. He then transcribed all 369 pages and condensed them into a script as a way to adapt the labyrinthine story into a filmable movie.
Inherent Vice follows Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), A hippie, drug-loving, private investigator. One day, his ex-lover, Shasta Fay (Katherine Waterston), comes to Doc for help in finding her current lover, Mickey Wolfmann. This leads Doc on an adventure of drugs and conspiracy, as well as many other PI jobs, which may all be related.
The cast is great, Hong Chau, Martin Short, and Josh Brolin as the strait-laced foe to Doc. Benicio del Toro as Doc’s attorney and friend, and Joanna Newsom as Doc’s inner monologue and narrator of the film. The film also includes Jenna Malone, Owen Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Michael K. Williams, Eric Roberts, and Reese Witherspoon.
If it sounds like a loaded cast, you’d be right. However, the film never feels bloated or overstuffed. Instead, many of the characters float in and out of Doc’s life, sometimes seeming to just propel Doc forward on his smoke-filled journey.
This opinion comes from not having read Inherent Vice. I think people get too hung up on attempting to put the puzzle pieces together. As if there are puzzle pieces to be assembled. There is an overarching conspiracy that is found out, but it’s almost as if Doc stumbles upon it rather than putting the pieces together.
Like The Big Lebowski, The Long Goodbye, and The Big Sleep, we vibe with the drug-fueled PI as they attempt to make sense of the assignment they’ve been given, but maybe there is no sense to be made of these things.
At least there’s comfort in knowing that every generation has a drug-infused Private Investigator we can follow on a nonsensical journey. Has Gen Z found theirs yet?
I love vibing with this film, which is all PTA seems to want you to do with his adaptation. However, I don’t know if there are deeper themes to explore. It’s hilarious, maybe Paul’s funniest film?
Though his comedic chops shine through, what has always placed this film near the bottom of my Paul Thomas Anderson ranking, it doesn’t feel like a PTA film. It feels like he adapted Thomas Pynchon.
Pynchon’s voice is so idiosyncratic that even another singular voice has trouble shining through when he attempts to adapt Pynchon’s dense work.
I know, or at least am led to assume, that Paul’s new film One Battle After Another is an adaptation of Pynchon’s Vineland. I’ve read Vineland, and the trailer is not a one-for-one of the novel, or it appears not to be.
I wonder if it will be a very loose adaptation, like a modern reinterpretation. This would let Paul’s voice come through more strongly. I still recommend this film to any PTA fan, but maybe not to the average person.
4/4 Stars
