In Inherent Vice we follow Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), a stoner PI who's life is shaken up a good deal when his ex girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) shows up at his door, begging him to help stop a strange scheme. It doesn't take long before Doc finds himself entangled in several bizarre cases while at the same time drifting through a haze of weed in a changing cultural landscape: Los Angeles in 1970.
Paul Thomas Anderson adapts the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name (Anderson both directs the film and wrote the screenplay, he does great with each), and going by the little I've read of the novel I'd say he does a pretty good job. The book is a fairly tough read, and it is hard to follow...much like the film. Anderson has assembled a top notch cast for his latest outing, most of whom excel in their roles both big and small. Katherine Waterston has a real world beauty to her as SHasta Fay, and she is pretty great in her role (quite memorable). Eric Roberts excels in his one scene, but walks away with one of my favorite lines in the whole film. Owen Wilson gets to actually act in a completely non-comedic performance and while this isn't his best role, it's nice to actually see him play a character with depth for a change. Benicio Del Toro is one of the really cool surprises here and is perfectly cast as Sauncho Smilax, a maritime lawyer who is a friend to Doc. It's cool to see him play a different version of what is essentially his character from Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. Joanna Newsom is also perfectly cast as Sortilege, a dreamy character who acts as our narrator and an ever present friend to Doc. Is she real, is she a figment of Doc's imagination, or could she possibly be a bit of both? There's also Martin Short as Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd, a sack-a-doodle dentist who's main vice is cocaine. Short gets to go completely over the top, and is quite enjoyable in his scenes (which I would compare to Alfred Molina's scenes in Boogie Nights).
Josh Brolin is great as Lt. Det. Christian "Bigfoot" Bjornson, an out-of-luck and mean-spirited cop who hates hippies. His quasi-friendship with Doc is one of the strongest aspects of the film. They both hate each other, but also share a begrudging respect as well. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Joaquin Phoenix, who is absolutely perfect here as the bumbling pot head who is much smarter than he ever lets on. While he does have his own interests, and gets involved with the main case for his own personal reasons (mainly that he just can't get over Shasta Fay, who is the one who got away), he is more-or-less a selfless person and is inherently good. He acts as the perfect foil for a lot of the other seedy and not-so-nice characters we run into over the course of the film.
Robert Elswit is in charge of cinematography for the film (he also was in charge of cinematography for Nightcrawler). In his hands, Los Angeles becomes a dreamy but realistic landscape. Even the barren, dry areas are absolutely beautiful. The whole film is gorgeous to look at, and I'd say between this and Nightcrawler it should be a safe bet he gets at least one nomination come Oscar time.
Inherent Vice runs at around 2 hours and 30 minutes. It is a LONG film (probably could have had a few minutes shaved off and it still would have been just as great), and while it certainly bears resemblances to The Big Lebowski and The Long Goodbye, the film it most reminded me of was The Big Sleep (one of my all time favorite films). Like The Big Sleep, Inherent Vice is a convoluted and hard to follow film but I'd say it's all the better for it. Mind you, I'm not saying it's impossible to follow, it just requires your complete attention. I loved it on my first go-round, and would imagine it only gets better with repeat viewings. I'm not going to say the plot isn't important, because it is. Inherent Vice is a film that is actually quite pertinent to today's modern world. It takes place in the beginning of a tumultuous decade when things were starting to change for the worse, and Doc is a left-over remnant of a dying breed. It's a film about the changing cultural landscape of America, and we see how hippies, the hippie culture, and weed were beginning to become demonized in said culture. While Inherent Vice seems light and fun, upon closer inspection I realized it was actually pretty sad as well.
Inherent Vice, like The Big Sleep before it, is a film where the point is to enjoy the journey. Don't fret over the plot, allow yourself to get caught up in the whirlwind of it all and just enjoy yourself. It really and truly is a fun film. It's also got some really great, deep messages and themes that I am still thinking about as I write this. I haven'd had a film in 2014 stay with me like this and had me thinking and pondering this hard. As if all this weren't enough, the character of Doc is a strong one and becomes one of the great modern cinematic heroes (I really do think the world would be a better place if everyone was a bit more like Doc). Even if you've never taken a toke in your life, Inherent Vice still manages to be one hell of a mesmerizing film that is fun to get lost in and easily emerges as one of the top films of 2014.
5 STARS
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