Inherent Vice
(2014)Joaquin Phoenix reteams with The Master director P.T. Anderson to play pothead private investigator 'Doc' Sportello in a shaggy dog detective film set in 1969. Based on Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel, co-starring Jena Malone, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro and Maya Rudolph.
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Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jena Malone, Reese Witherspoon, Sasha Pieterse, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Wilson Bethel, Benicio Del Toro, Maya Rudolph, Martin Short
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson (based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 3 providers
Flicks Review
BY Steve Newall Flicks Writer
Paul Thomas Anderson’s woozy Pynchon adaptation rewards repeat viewings, freed from the need to track its paranoid pot-addled private dick plot. Inherent Vice’s narrative probably twists and turns a few too many times, but by that stage anyone watching should be clued up enough to realise its storytelling exists primarily as a means for constant conspiratorial chats in hushed voices. Often content to let scenes play out in lengthy fashion, Anderson leaves plenty of room for Phoenix to shine in a hilarious performance.
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Inherent Vice
The Press Reviews
73%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Extremely funny. Full Review
A groovy, richly funny stoner romp that has less in common with “The Big Lebowski” than with the strain of fatalistic, ’70s-era California noirs (“Chinatown,” “The Long Goodbye,” “Night Moves”)... Full Review
As antic as Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love, but with The Master and There Will Be Blood’s uncanny feel for the swell and ebb of history. Full Review
It all serves a portrait of 1970 California that mixes absurdity with an air of looming cataclysm... Full Review
If not quite on a par with PTA’s best, this is still a richly intoxicating brew of humour, violence and melancholy. Full Review
Just relax and let this beautiful, haunting, hilarious, chaotic, irritating and possibly profound tragicomedy wash over you. There is nothing else out there like it. Full Review
Anderson has all manner of fun with the tale's whirling, blurring trajectory. Full Review
It's a film you sink into, like a haze on the road, even as it jerks you along with spikes of humor. Full Review
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