Inherent Vice

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🎙️ EPISODE 429: 03.24.22 This is not a "hangout" movie. I've bemoaned that term and its increasingly popular usage, and despite the ensemble cast and hippie-dippie undertones of Inherent Vice, I found it to be — ultimately — one of his bleaker films. You don't want to hang out with these people, any of these people: even Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role of stoner P.I. Larry “Doc” Sportello is burdened by a sadness, one that seems deeper than the obvious detachment from his ex-girlfriend Shasta, played by Katherine Waterston. Shasta is one of many characters that function like spectres, weaving in and out of the story like rolling fog; their relevance far more symbolic (of something, don't ask me) than anything tangible. And that's a bit odd, considering this is a mystery, very much a classic crime noir. So what's the opposite of a "hangout" movie? A "bad vibes" one, perhaps.

To say nothing of the Thomas Pynchon novel this is based on — though I hear it's a very faithful adaptation — because I am a dumb guy who hasn't read it, it certainly feels like Anderson's most writerly film to date. He's deployed narrators before, but not like this: utilizing the great voice of Joanna Newsome — in an otherwise tiny, insignificant role — to serve as the reader of prose, as I assume these passages are as close to verbatim as you're gonna get in any cinematic version of a book. And it works. Everything pretty much works in this movie. I hardly have a single complaint. I even felt on this, my second viewing, that the plot wasn't convoluted at all. It's muddy and connections seem to be me made with what feels like dream logic, but it nevertheless connects. Whether or not it leaves you feeling good is in the eye of the beholder. Although, I'm not sure how you can warm and fuzzy watching this end scene unfold: two wayward souls coasting toward oblivion...


Like with any good "bad vibes" movie, this thing shines in moments. Phoenix and Josh Brolin as the ultra agro 50s holdover cop "Big Foot" have carved out fascinating characters as the two main leads, but it's still in their singular interactions where the magic is found, even if they aren't in the same room...


And the endless parade of notable names, in roles of all sizes, are almost universally terrific. One nice little trick (and this is possibly due to the limitations of adaptation) is that the audience can never really glean who's really important and who's ancillary, who's there for the goofs and foibles and who's intricate to solving these succession of mysteries. The late great Michael K. Williams pops in, and we never see him again. Owen Wilson's shady character ends up having much more depth than it initially seems. Etc etc. And the various mysteries all play out at once; not necessarily stacked atop one another, but as if you were skirting the inner edges of a Venn diagram.

In this strange world, hippies commingle with nazis. There is no line between dentistry and the drug trade. Cops fellate frozen bananas in public. And while I don't think I laughed OUT LOUD one single time, I recognized the sick joke: This is America. This has always been America. It's enough to make you insane, but as Martin Short dutifully declares...


Oddly, I think I connected with Josh Brolin's police detective more than anyone. Of all the broken and destructive forces parading and colliding in this film, he's right there at the front of the line. Buried inside him is this clear need to be a part of something, and he has no idea how or why. When everything's said and done, he pays Doc one more visit, breaking down his door and gobbling up all the weed like a deranged animal...


It doesn't matter how chill we want things to be. We don't get to decide on the temperature of the vibes. We never did.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 428 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 430 ⫸

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Inherent Vice is a 2014 American period neo-noir crime film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. The cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom, Jeannie Berlin, Maya Rudolph, Michael K. Williams and Martin Short. The film follows Larry "Doc" Sportello, a well-intentioned but inept stoner, hippie, and private investigator in 1970, who is embroiled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld while investigating three cases interrelated by the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and her new wealthy boyfriend. It was released on October 4, 2014.