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Inherent Vice


#151 - Inherent Vice
Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014



In early-1970s California, a burned-out private investigator is contacted by his ex-girlfriend and made to look into a convoluted mystery involving a real estate baron.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that Inherent Vice played out more or less how I expected it to? It's not hard to pick the similarities to certain other films that work in a similar vein and work out how it'll pan out from there - the increasingly complicated mystery plot with many inter-connecting strands, the cavalcade of bizarre characters that populate the film's cartoonish setting, etc. It's all here and it's all executed rather well. Anderson shows how well he can work with an ensemble of great and not-so-great actors. Joaquin Phoenix makes for a great lead as Doc, the defective detective whose drug-fuelled attitude frequently allows him to react to the plot in a variety of amusing ways and he more than carries the film. Josh Brolin plays yet another stone-faced law enforcement type who deserves acknowledgement for playing some of the film's most ridiculous moments with the straightest face possible. Musician Joanna Newsom pops up in a supporting role as one of Phoenix's friends and also the narrator who peppers her voice-over with frequent spiritual references of debatable relevance (hey, just like Justin Timberlake in Southland Tales). Owen Wilson does his whole Owen Wilson thing, while Benicio del Toro plays the main character's eccentric attorney (why does that sound familiar?) and Katharine Waterston gets a solid role as the closest thing the film has to a femme fatale, even getting in one lengthy and well-delivered monologue at one point. Even glorified cameos such as Martin Short as a depraved dentist stand out.

On a technical level, the film is well-shot (Robert Elswit is another great cinematographer and is perfectly suited to capturing some truly garish scenery) and Jonny Greenwood provides yet another great instrumental score that properly fits the mostly-chilled atmosphere. It was a little distracting how the film apparently takes place in 1970 yet the soundtrack features songs from 1972 on it, though (fortunately the songs fit the film well aside from that). The story is a bit convoluted, sure, but at least it's funny - for the most part. Things take a darker-than-expected turn in the final hour (starting with the scene that features the aforementioned Waterston monologue) and, though it's still reasonably solid, it doesn't quite retain the same comedic vibe that permeated the bulk of the film. Even so, iIt wasn't quite enough to truly sully my enjoyment of the film, and I definitely appreciate this film enough to want to watch it again.