INHERENT VICE
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Katherine Waterston
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson's journey through 20th century America continues with this, his most absurd picaresque film to date. Whereas There Will Be Blood depicted ruthless ambition and The Master delved into post-war aimlessness, Inherent Vice examines the era when American life had become something that people yearned to escape from.
It's 1970 in Los Angeles and the Manson Family murders have effectively killed everyone's buzz. Nevertheless, perpetually-stoned private detective Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) has a new case to solve. His ex (Katherine Waterston) has just clued him in on a plot that would see her billionaire beau (Eric Roberts) institutionalized. One visit to a construction site massage parlour later and Doc has opened a can of tangled plotlines involving a free-spirited saxophonist (Owen Wilson), neo-Nazis, a secret cabal of dentists (headed by Martin Short) and other subversive elements.
Legend has it that Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep was so convoluted that even its astute author never completely figured it out. In faithfully adapting Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel, Anderson offers us insight into how an equally labyrinthine procedural might be comically navigated by a paranoia-impaired burnout. (The closest thing to an authority figure on offer here is Josh Brolin's delusional cop who yearns for television stardom.) Dispensing with dramatic irony, Vice leaves us in the same listing boat as Doc, bewildered over what we've just witnessed and clueless as to what might lie around the next corner.
Retaining his formal mastery while indulging his performers' whims, Anderson fashions an outrageously unbalanced odyssey that’s punctuated by madcap antics and accented by wistful melancholy. And as the comedown leads us to an unexpectedly emotional denouement, Inherent Vice closes on a note as achingly beautiful as the Neil Young songs that grace its soundtrack.
