![]() ![]() Joaquin Phoenix is barbed wire masquerading as a ball of wool. But Inherent Vice has less kinship with the Coens’ bowling noir than the Angelino hippy sleuth set-up might suggest - rather than deadpan, it is surreal. was set to fill Doc’s flip-flops, and he suggests a more welcoming and ironic fit. One of his joys is that we can never be sure of how good a detective he is: do the drugs hinder the little grey cells or help make sense of a world that is already insane?Īt one point, Robert Downey Jr. An impenetrable investigation given a sweet, sing-songy narration by a local astrologer named Sortilège (Joanna Newsom), spiritual guide and agony aunt to Doc (and, when you think about it, also the voice of Thomas Pynchon).ĭoc is a lovably dotty creation, a Fabulous Furry Freak Brother squeezed into Philip Marlowe, at once befuddled and cunning. Wolfmann, played by Eric Roberts, in a hypnotic cameo? And so Doc ‘trips’ into the rabbit hole. Can he locate her missing boyfriend, a big-time real-estate type, name of Michael Z. And, of course, with a girl: Shasta Fay Hepworth (the divinely ethereal Katherine Waterston), Doc’s old flame, who has a case for him. Symbolically, it opens with the ocean of time lapping at fictional LA outlier Gordita Beach. ![]() Inherent Vice stoops across the border between the freewheeling Californian ’60s and the uptight Nixonian ’70s, where big business is the ultimate buzz-kill and the Manson murders cast a long, mournful shadow over the countercultural ideal. And Anderson is keeping faith with his idol’s mystifying visions. His grand preoccupation is his country’s spiritual welfare, depicting America as one giant, ever-unfolding conspiracy contrived by sinister cabals of squares. Pynchon works to the principle that the less a reader is able to grasp, the better. None of the famously reclusive novelist’s dizzying tales have ever been adapted before. Inherent Vice will have an early relese in the US on December 12 th, qualifying it for the Oscars, before opening wide on January 9 th, with its UK release set for January 30 th.How do you review a film that’s deliberately half-crazed? One so overloaded with incident, character and problem hair, you begin to fear for your own sanity? Where plot logic is smothered in psychedelic smog, mostly care of private eye Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello’s prodigious dope habit?įor his seventh film, Paul Thomas Anderson has elected to adapt off-centre American writer Thomas Pynchon’s seventh novel. Williams.Īnderson is directing from his own script, the first adaptation of any Thomas Pynchon work, with Pynchon, renowned for being a reclusive writer, successfully keeping himself out of the public eye for decades, thought to have been involved to some extent with overseeing Anderson’s adaptation. Phoenix is joined by one of Anderson’s best casts yet, with support from Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Jena Malone, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Martin Short, Eric Roberts, and Michael K. Joaquin Phoenix goes all the way for Anderson (just as he did in The Master) playing Doc Sportello, the private investigator searching for his ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston, a revelation), menaced at every turn by Josh Brolin as the telegenic police detective “Bigfoot” Bjornsen. It’s not just the look (which is ineffably right, from the mutton chops and the peasant dresses to the battered screen doors and the neon glow), it’s the feel, the rhythm of hanging out, of talking yourself into a state of shivering ecstasy or fear or something in between. ![]() Paul Thomas Anderson’s wild and entrancing new movie, the very first adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, is a cinematic time machine, placing the viewer deep within the world of the paranoid, hazy L.A. has launched a brilliant first trailer for all of us who couldn’t make it out to its New York debut. This year’s NYFF played host to the world premieres of both Anderson’s Inherent Vice and David Fincher’s Gone Girl, sure to give each other a run for their money when the nominations are announced next year, and now Warner Bros. had, at one point, been poised to take the lead as Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello, but ultimately the part went to Joaquin Phoenix, who could well emerge as a Best Actor candidate in the coming months. ![]() Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Inherent Vice has been a few years in the making, and is a huge Oscar contender in the coming awards race. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |