Despite some very strong reviews, Inherent Vice (a drug-fueled detective story based on a best-selling Thomas Pynchon novel) has been struggling with some bad buzz.
People find its labyrinthine plot too confounding to appreciate and its nearly 3-hour length too indulgent. I understand these criticisms, but I nevertheless loved this movie. So much in fact that I went ahead and revised my top 10 list for 2014 to put this sprawling, hard-to-classify film in my top five.
Its director, Paul Thomas Anderson, is one of my favorite filmmakers working today but I was worried he had begun to go astray with his last film, the fascinating but also inaccessible, The Master. Prior to that flawed film I've loved every movie Anderson has made, and a recent revisit of Boogie Nights reaffirmed my awe for his talent.
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| Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin in Inherent Vice |
The trailer for Inherent Vice has had me psyched for months, but then many people whose opinions I respect said they left the film scratching their heads, or in some cases outright hating it. I can only say that I surrendered to this movie's charms from its gorgeous opening frames, and I had a ball going on its strange twisted journey.
The storyline, while purposely confusing at times, didn't alienate me and the movie was so funny, sexy, and unpredictable I didn't really care if every thread of the plot made perfect sense to me.
Anderson is not afraid to take chances, to make an over-the-top movie that dares to be different. He doesn't talk down to his audience and he wants to challenge you, to listen, to retain information and to experience scenes at different paces and styles. His films are often impossible to categorize and he likes it that way (I suspect). There's a lot that I like about this film and I'm still digesting it so I will distill my defense of it to three quick points.
1) The cast was extraordinary - Anderson has assembled a dream cast, featuring actors who don't get enough mainstream exposure, like the great Eric Roberts and Benicio Del Toro. Josh Brolin nearly steals the show with an uproariously funny performance as a hippie-hating cop. And Joaquin Phoenix proved to me that when he allows his natural comic ability to shine through (as he did in Her) he is a compelling and unique leading man. His public stunts and self-importance had turned me off of him in the past, but as far as I'm concerned he's on a roll now.
2) The movie's look/feel - This film perfectly captures the early '70s-era California, or at least what I imagine it to be. Like the best period movies, it doesn't beat you over the head with decor and costumes but it has these great little touches that just plunge you into a very specific place and time. I am a hardcore East Coast partisan, anyone who knows me knows this about me, and yet this movie made me want to venture west. I loved its world of beautiful women and loose morals. And in my estimation this movie perfectly captures the odd transition from '60s-era social engagement to '70s-decadence.
3) It's deliriously funny - Almost all of Anderson's films have a great sense of humor, even if it's a dark one. Still, this is probably his most laugh-out-loud hilarious movie since his romantic fable Punch-Drunk Love. It's tonally all over the map, but it's never quite morose, and its sense of fun is cathartic. It milks the pothead conceit just enough -- not too much, not too little. It even manages to have a healthy sense of danger despite the relatively low stakes screenplay.
After a year of mostly safe, mediocre movies, it's fun to start the new one with something so wildly original and risky. I don't suspect Inherent Vice will win any major awards, or even get much of an audience, but I'm happy as hell it got made and that I got to see it.
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