![]() The trailer had an undoubted highlight: when someone hits ‘Doc’ Sportello – the stoner private eye who is the film’s protagonist – on the back of the head with a baseball bat, Joaquin Phoenix does a beautifully funny, split-second double-take before falling to the ground but I think the convoluted plotting of Inherent Vice is the main reason why the trailer as a whole is so unusually good. The experience of the whole movie hasn’t caused me to think any of these were bad reasons for being on its side and I still am. Inherent Vice has also quickly gained an aura of incomprehensibility: it was nice to think, as someone who often fails to understand a plot that hasn’t been remarked upon as Byzantine, I might be in good company this time. The cast includes plenty of talented actors. ![]() The film is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The trailer was the most enjoyable I’d seen for ages. As the ending credits roll, it’s best to merely focus on their lovely neon colors, and not try to recall precisely what just happened.Īfter all, they say that if you can remember the ‘60s, then you weren’t really there.I looked forward to Inherent Vice for several reasons. The film is narrated by a mysteriously spiritual character named Sortilege, Doc’s ex-assistant (singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom.) But does she put it all together for us? Nah. There’s also a terrific turn by theater actor Jefferson Mays as a menacing doctor.Ĭinematographer Robert Elswit nicely captures a surf-culture vibe (he recently explored a darker, grittier, more current Los Angeles in “Nightcrawler”). They include Reese Witherspoon as Deputy DA Penny Kimball, all buttoned up until she’s not, and Martin Short, bringing his manic comedic skills to the role of Rudy Blatnoyd, DDS - a horndog, cocaine-loving dentist. What’s next? Wrong question: Unless you’ve read the book, and maybe even if you have, the plot eventually becomes impossible to sort through – at least if you’re also trying to simply enjoy meeting the assortment of unusual types flitting through. Bigfoot sucks suggestively on chocolate-covered bananas, bashes in doors when he could just open them, moonlights on TV (he’s an extra on “Adam-12”), and barks out orders for pancakes in a hilariously distinctive manner. Christian “Bigfoot” Bjornsen – and we say thankfully because this idiosyncratic LAPD detective with a flat-top hairdo is played by Josh Brolin, who squeezes every ounce of high-octane comedy out of the role. Thankfully that brings Doc face to face with Lt. Turns out that Coy ( Owen Wilson, right at home here with his languid surfer-speech) has been up to some crazy undercover stuff.īut back to Shasta, whom Doc still pines for: Starting to investigate her case, he visits an erotic massage parlor, gets knocked out and winds up next to a corpse. Meanwhile, there’s Hope Harlingen ( Jena Malone), a former addict with an impressive set of false teeth, trying to track down her missing husband, Coy, a sax player who may or may not be dead. What should she do?Īnd then poor Mickey AND Shasta disappear. Seems the rich guy’s icy British wife - and HER boyfriend - are plotting to kidnap Mickey and maybe toss him into a loony bin, with her help. Shasta Fay Hepworth (newcomer Katherine Waterston, winsome and appealing) tells Doc about her current flame, real estate magnate Mickey Wolfmann ( Eric Roberts). He lives and works, but mostly smokes pot, in fictional Gordita Beach, where, one day, his old girlfriend pops by. The action takes place in 1970, to be precise, just as the ‘60s are about to morph into something different – not that Sportello seems all too conscious of that.
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