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Inherent Vice

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Inherent Vice

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Summary

A drug addled private detective unwittingly becomes embroiled in an elaborate kidnapping case in Los Angeles during the 1970s involving an old flame, her billionaire boyfriend and his wife. Comedy drama based on Thomas Pynchon's acclaimed novel, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin and Reese Witherspoon

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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Andrew Collins

Joaquin Phoenix, who played a manipulated innocent in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, is nominally in control in the acclaimed auteur's follow-up. A gloriously rambling, dope-fogged detective yarn set in 1970, this will delight aficionados of both the "New Hollywood" era and of author Thomas Pynchon, whose dense novels have been deemed unfilmable. Playing Los Angeles PI "Doc" Sportello as a fuzz-faced countercultural update of Elliott Gould's private dick in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (whose milky look and period grain have been lovingly re-created by cinematographer Robert Elswit), Phoenix takes on two missing person cases: his hippy-chick ex (a lift-off performance from Katherine Waterston) and Owen Wilson's heroin-addict sax player. A labyrinthine investigation ensues via long, talky exchanges with cameoing stars including Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short and Michael K Williams, with Josh Brolin's flat-topped, straight-edge cop a constant ally-cum-nemesis. Taking in Black power, Aryan supremacism, drug smuggling and real estate, Inherent Vice does get over-entangled, but, despite the pot haze, a credible plot emerges and Anderson chalks up another triumph. He would return to the supposedly "unfilmable" Pynchon 11 years later, mining the author's Vineland for Oscar-sweeping thriller One Battle after Another.

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6.6/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameLarry "Doc" SportelloJoaquin PhoenixLt Det Christian F "Bigfoot" BjornsenJosh BrolinCoy HarlingenOwen WilsonShasta Fay HepworthKatherine WaterstonPenny KimballReese WitherspoonSauncho Smilax, EsqBenicio Del ToroDr Rudy BlatnoydMartin ShortHope HarlingenJena MaloneSortilègeJoanna NewsomPetunia LeewayMaya RudolphJaponica FenwaySasha PieterseTariq KhalilMichael Kenneth WilliamsMichael Z WolfmannEric RobertsCrocker FenwayMartin Donovan (2)Sloane WolfmannSerena Scott ThomasAunt ReetJeannie BerlinJadeHong ChauClancy CharlockBelladonna XandraElaine TanPuck BeavertonKeith JardineAdrian PrussiaPeter McRobbie

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Crew

rolenameDirectorPaul Thomas Anderson

Details

Theatrical distributor

Warner Bros

Released on

2015-01-30

Languages

English | Japanese

Guidance

Swearing, sex scenes, drug abuse

Available on

DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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