Inherent Vice [Blu-ray] [2015]

What a fantastic movie, watched it twice to savour its woody flavour. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as a hippy Marlowe equivalent, Doc Sportello, and like Elliott Gould he has wonderful expressive eyes that convey a full range of emotion. Called upon by his ex girlfriend, the private investigator sets out to discover why her billionaire boyfriend has mysteriously disappeared. The plot unravels in a glorious sequence of scenes, each memorable and brilliantly framed. From the sordid Pussy Eater's club where he is knocked out, is introduced the second fantastic character, Bigfoot Bjornsen, played with brilliance by Josh Brolin. A square wave, flat top, robot cop, that hates hippies and is constantly beating on or disrespecting poor old Joaquin. So many great cameos, Benicio del Toro as his lawyer plays it straight, though on the phone you can hear his greedy bubbling on a hookah. Martin Short as leacherous drug-addled Dr Blatnoyd is hilarious and it is a shame his role is so short. Twist upon twist ensue until Doc Sportello shows his true mettle as he escapes from the murderous Golden Fang operatives. The basement scene as he spots Bigfoot loading up his car boot with bags of heroin, purloined from the drug trafficking Indo-Chinese cartel, is a raw moment. The last scene with Bigfoot where he infringes Doc's civil liberties by booting in his front door, complains about his lack of contact, smokes a reefer, eats it and an ash tray full of butt ends, just blows Joaquin's fragile mind, like is this really happening dude? Like Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson is a director to be treasured, unique and offbeat films that create a lasting impression on your mind. The Master is another must see film by him, starring Joaquin Phoenix, with the late and sorely missed Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Movie Making Magnifience.

We loved this, it was our carefully picked Christmas Day film! If you like the sound of the description of it I'm pretty sure you'll love the film. The acting is fantastic and there are some really really funny moments. Grinning just thinking about it now! Another film that we'll be saving to watch again...next Christmas probably...twinned with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas I think! Some good music on the soundtrack too!

Joaquin Phoenix is definitely coming into his own feral field of acting grotesque comedy(with The Master before this), with his mutton-chops sideboards and gruffalo hair(looking like a Neil Young of the mid 70s), playing out his own version of heart-broken love, pining for his ex-old lady, Shasta Fay Hepworth(Waterson). With the downfall of the hippy dream of the 60s, everyone’s world has fallen apart, though they still smoke dope, the paranoid’s last hope is to connect everything with everything. They are thrown back on dreams, psychic flashes, Ouija boards, horoscopes, seeking patterns in the chaos of reality. Of course to help us on our way we have the doper, Doc Sportello, P.I., or his yang, friend-enemy, Big Foot Bjornsen (Brolin). Phoenix’s performance is a wonder to behold, with his ‘umms ‘ and ‘aahs’ and his connecting notes to ward off his short term memory loss.He’s a kind of hero of the marginalized by the “forces of greed and fear”. Carefree beaches of the 60s have given way to the pavemented real-estate of the 70s with the commercialization of the hippy dream. ”Under the paving stones, the beach” is a tag at the start of the film taken from graffiti of Paris '68. Paul Thomas Anderson has taken time off from his more serious film subjects to hang out with his favourite author, Thomas Pynchon, with one of his own more relaxed,successful novels(Inherent Vice),written as if out of pure pleasure.This is a breather between biggies for both artists.Paranoia is running the day,coming from Charlie Manson , the FBI,the LAPD or the mysterious “Golden Fang”. We have forebears in Hawk’s Big Sleep and Altman’s The Long Goodbye. The ex, Shasta, starts the plot rolling, when she turns up,to ask, “ I need your help Doc”. For Shasta,Doc was the only doper who didn’t use heroin and provided low rent living space. Of course making films of novels is always fraught with danger; making films of wordy books is liable to lead the filmmaker astray, especially if he quotes from the book or has a voiceover. It’s really all about translating the words into images.This film has no plot, we are pin-balled between characters and moods. It’s like pedalling in low gear without much forward momentum with a lot of interior dialogue scenes ,together with close-up shots,everything seems flattened-out and equi-similar. There are a lot of pratfalls and jokes, each scene doesn’t build up onto the next scene,we just randomly go from one t’other. Inventing a pattern where there is none is something that stories andconspiracy theories have in common. There is no depth , characters are cartoons. It’s hard for us to distinguish between the different sets of semi- crooks, and between friends and foes.Our P.I. has to discriminate between spells of laughing gas, LSD,cocaine and cannabis, what connects all the many threads. Doc turns up to salvage his generation and guide it back, with his kindness, to more merciful shores. Many people approach Doc , from Shasta(Katherine Waterson terrific), who’s worried about her missing lover, a property magnate, whose wife and her lover are sending to the asylum; to Hope Harlingen(brilliant Jena Malone) the ex-junkie mother turned drug counsillor to investigate her husband’s ‘death’, saxplayer Coy(Wilson), who Doc finds alive working undercover for the FBI(Coy informs Doc of the 'Golden Fang', a Chinese syndicate running drugs, a schooner, or a congress of dentists or all 3); to the Black Power militant who has been ripped off by one of Wolfmann’s bodyguards,who is protected by the Aryan Brotherhood, a gang of bikers. Doc learns Mickey (Wolfmann)was making philanthropic plans to atone for his sins by giving all his money away. This is the real problem, and the good guys and the bad guys get together to stave off this reprehensible act. The syndicates that flood LA with heroin, reel in the anti-capitalists via rehab, into conformism and conservatism. There are two magnificent set pieces in the film,the Golden Fang headquarters,where Martin Short is a mad hatter dentist, who’s screwing his receptionist and his clients, wrapped up in a drug ring, where Doc runs into Japonica a rich runaway he’d once been hired to find; then an exclusive rehab institute, a hospital so white where he’s shown around by an unctuous doctor,where a group of patients are dressed as Tibetan monks, and the inmates watch terrible old movies all the time, in a process of brainwashing these once rich kids. One of Doc’s missions is to reunite Hope and Coy.There are some real pleasures in a scene where Doc’s reminiscence of plashing barefoot along a sidewalk in downtown LA with Shasta to the tune of Neil Young’‘Journey through the Past’, next to a vacant lot that ,when we next see it, is occupied by an ominous-looking corporate HQ. There are some great performances here from Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Katherine Waterston, Jena Malone, Owen Wilson. The soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood is Debussy-like and there’s good use of surfer tracks as well as Neil Young. This film I guarantee you will grow on you like a jazz riff or to emulate the antique,slangy prose of Pynchon, like Doc’s mutton chop sideburns.

I missed this at the cinema and saw that the dvd was only £4.99 so I thought I'd give it a go. A clever and sometimes too clever film that was enjoyable but at over 21/2 hours, there should have been some edits which would have made the film concise and easier to follow. The plot meandered without a structured thread but maybe this was to involve the audience into the world of the stoner? The acting and the 70's setting were spot on. It also sported a cool soundtrack. An art school film which is a one time view film only.

I loved the film and the Pynchon novel from which it came, great performances here and a very thoughtful soundtrack eg those Neil Young choices. Read an interview, maybe in Sight & Sound, with Anderson and he named other films some of which I hadn't 't encountered(Mondo Hollywood, The Muthers etc) so I have chased them up now. The para-educational power of film!

Reminds me a bit of the Big Lebowski in humour and style. Lots of jokes on potheads and paranoia, set in 60's California Anderson weaves a brilliant conspiracy plot based on Pynchon's (popular with American Studies students and teachers) novel. Definitely worth watching despite a relatively luke-warm reception by critics, Paul Thomas Anderson has produced another beauty like an onion - with layers of humour, with a cast who know what they are doing.

“ private detective “ mystery

Being a big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson's quirky and creative directorial style, this film certainly didn't disappoint. A brilliant cast give their all, which includes Josh Brolin, Katherine Waterston, Martin Short, Owen Wilson and headed by Joaquin Phoenix who's on absolutely first-class form. Full of odd-ball characters and cheeky humour, I would have awarded 5 stars had the dialogue not been a little confusing at times. But perhaps another viewing or two might sort this out. I love this film!

Na ja Film... muss man nicht unbedingt haben....

Audio italiano normale, fotografia eccellente, interpretazione ottima. Un bel film, venditore che consiglio ha spedito tutto nei tempi concordati.