100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 22: Inherent Vice

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Genre: Crime/ Drama/ Comedy

Runtime: 148 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Reese Witherspoon, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short

Description: In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles detective Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.

Review: When you see the name of director Paul Thomas Anderson on a movie poster, you have certain expectations. He has movies like “Magnolia”, “Boogie Nights” and “There Will Be Blood” on his resume.

With “Inherent Vice” Anderson chose a book to movie adaptation. Books by author Thomas Pynchon are known for its complexity, so it’s not that strange this is the first adaptation.

The seventies have just begun and we join private detective Larry Sportello, better known as Doc. His ex-girlfriend Shasta walks in and starts telling him about a collusion to get her wealthy, married lover into a psychiatric facility. Doc decides to investigate. Before he knows it, he is surrounded by strippers, neo-Nazis, hostile cops and eccentric cults.

“Inherent Vice” makes you feel like that one sober person at a party. The more you try to hold on to a logic story development, the more frustrated you’ll get. And the long duration will also add to that confusion. You really need a ‘go with the flow’ mentality.

When it comes to style and setting, “Inherent Vice” doesn’t disappoint. Like he did in “Boogie Nights”, again he shows us how masterful he can take the audience to a certain time period. And the soundtrack is also worth mentioning.

“Inherent Vice” is not a movie for just everyone, it’s for a selective audience. It’s not one of my favorite Anderson movies, but definitely not bad.

Rating: 3/ 5