Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson – 2014 – USA

Since I’m too lazy to do any actual research on this, I’m just assuming that I’m safely in the minority in believing Inherent Vice to be Paul Thomas Anderson’s best film since Boogie Nights (1997).  While admiring all his other films, my reactions to them have always been lukewarm.  It has something to do with the pristine reputation of genius that critics and film geeks have jointly bestowed upon him, and something to do with the feeling I get from his films – (as with those of Darren Aronofky, David O. Russell, the Coen brothers, and a few others in that category.) – that he is willfully making his films to please those same people rather than either himself or the general public, which I would find slightly more admirable.  In any case, what difference does it make?  The man makes good movies, so I guess the motives don’t really matter.  Based on Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel, Inherent Vice concerns a small-time P.I. (Joaquin Phoenix) who gets drawn into the shady world of a wealthy land-developer by an ex-girlfriend and several others whose problems all seem to revolve about the man.  Set in 1970, it’s definitely one of the best period pieces depicting that time that I’ve seen; the locations, decor, hair and clothing are all flawless and steer clear of the problem that cripples most films set in the 1960s or 70s that look like the wardrobe department just swung by a thrift shop after watching a couple episodes of The Brady Bunch.  I was frequently and strongly reminded of Robert Altman’s classic The Long Goodbye (1973), which may have been an influence on Pynchon or Anderson or both, with its similar early-70s milieu and the comical incongruity of a detective maneuvering through the counterculture in its waning days.  Normally I find the orchestrated intertextuality in films like this very oppressive; it makes it difficult to relax into the world of the film since you’re busy treading water to keep afloat in a sea of cleverness mostly involving visual puns and references.  It’s all very postmodern as opposed to natural and intuitive.  Nevertheless, Anderson’s style is so confident, without being arrogant, that this film – more than all his others, for me anyway – is simply enjoyable.  I can’t say I’m a full convert to Andersonism, but I’ll give Inherent Vice a compliment I rarely give new films; I wanted to see it again the next day.  (I didn’t really end up doing so… but I wanted to.)