Inherent Vice

The Golden Globes and the Critics Choice awards have both gone by and now the Oscars loom ahead. To no real surprise, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film “Inherent Vice” barely received any nominations snagging just two in the Oscars: costume design and adapted screenplay.

The reason that the lack of nominations for this film, to put it simply, is because it just isn’t a clinical “Oscar” film. Meaning, that it isn’t packaged nicely for the viewer to digest easily in one viewing so that they come out of the theatre saying, “Ya, I get it.”

I can understand that casual viewers wouldn’t even think about seeing this movie, but the polarized reviews by the critics was a little disappointing. Many of them bashed the film for being too boring or having no recognizable plot. But umm…that isn’t the point of the film? Matt Zoller Sietz, a writer for the late Roger Ebert’s movie review website, got it spot on. He recognized that the point of the movie isn’t about following the plot, because honestly, that is damn near impossible. Instead, you should just let yourself be washed over by the atmospheric paranoia of 70’s California that the film immerses you in. Know that this is a movie that gets better with multiple viewings.

Also, if you are familiar with Thomas Pynchon’s work (author of Gravity’s Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, and of course, Inherent Vice) then you will recognize that this movie is an incredibly faithful adaptation, and that the convoluted plot isn’t a sign that PTA is a bad director or writer. It’s just Pynchon man…

My best attempt to explain what I think the point of the film, is for me to point you in the direction of a song that is in it’s soundtrack. Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF6JMotbHYM

Amidst this world of hippy paranoia, the only thing that Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) is sure of, is that he still loves Shasta, and he hopes that she loves him too. But this is not meant to be. Of course I may be completely wrong. To steal Seitz’s final line from his review, “What were we talking about?”

Joaquin Phoenix is also another reason this may not be getting much favour from the Oscars (he publicly said that the Oscars were bullshit, but later apologized, however, lets be honest, old people don’t forget insults, although they may forget a lot more, like what a good movie is for instance).

But the entire cast is amazing, Joaquin Phoenix is basically in every scene, then we have Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short, and a newcomer Katherine Waterston. Every single one of these actors give wonderful performances.

If it isn’t obvious by this point, I absolutely loved this film. Arguably you could say I am somewhat biased, by saying that I love Paul Thomas Anderson’s work (The Master and There Will Be Blood are both amazing), but that isn’t true because I don’t love Punch Drunk Love that much, nor Magnolia. I still think The Master is my favourite out of his filmography, followed now by Inherent Vice (or maybe tied).

So watch this trailer, and go see it if you want. Remember, don’t try really hard to follow the plot, just enjoy the moment.

Oh, did I forget to mention? The movie is absolutely hilarious.