I hated this. The best things I'll say about it are that the score is actually really good, it does definitely do its job in evoking the feel of '70s films, and Joaquin Phoenix gives a committed performance even as the script gets more and more ridiculous. Katherine Waterston is fine though hardly delivering the kind of breakthrough performance some seem to be suggesting, and the dialogue she has is so meandering and dull. The plot is completely fucking incomprehensible - I had no idea what was going on or more importantly why I was supposed to care. Great actors come in and have ridiculous scenes and are never seen again (Martin Short and Benicio del Toro for example). Reese Witherspoon's character seems to be the only sane one of the bunch and it makes no sense that she's linked to Phoenix's character in any way. It plays out like some drug addict rambling on and on about something with no purpose and because it's so long it honestly becomes unbearable to sit through. A massive disappointment. This is one of those pretentious movies that college freshmen are going to pretend to find "life-changing" and will hang the poster on their dorm room walls. It's a fucking mess, and a huge disappointment from a great director. C-/D+

I hated it as well. I'm not going to get much into it because I pretty much agree with you 100% but it is such a dull, confusing, unbearable piece of garbage. A massive disappointment for sure.

D

I watched this again today because a friend wanted to watch it and I honestly can't get over how bad it is. Paul Thomas Anderson is a great director and one of my favorites for sure and the cast is great but it totally misses the mark 99% of the time. Seeing it twice, I still cannot tell you even half of what happened in it. I'm also tired of hearing "it's not what it is about that is the point!" Please, this is just people being fucking pretentious as hell because they don't want to be disappointed in a Paul Thomas Anderson film. This is not important, it is not good, it is just garbage.

With this ambitious wonderland adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice, writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted a special film. His best since Magnolia, it is at once grim, hilarious, extremely confounding, and entirely satisfying, and it has an amazing feel—tactile, sensual, even olfactory—for the world and time its characters inhabit. The many-tentacled storyline turns on "Doc" (Joaquin Phoenix), a long-haired, dazed-and-partly-confused private eye living by the beach in L.A. as the 1960s harshly give way to the '70s. An old flame (Katherine Waterston) urges him to investigate a plot to steal the fortune of her new lover, a real-estate magnate briefly played by Eric Roberts, and soon our intrepid, pot-smoking hero is caught in a menacing and psychedelic web of dentists, maritime lawyers, musicians, Nazis, policemen, and other madcap fiends and players. Who is conspiring with whom, and can the well-intentioned, self-medicating "Doc" trust his own senses?

Simple point-A-to-point-B solutions are not among this film's chief concerns, though sober skeptics are wrong to say it is completely devoid of the teasing, satisfying twists and turns of a traditional mystery story. They are present amidst a veritable treasure trove of distinctive characters, inspired comic set pieces, astrological voice-over musings, tasteful flourishes of period-conjuring art direction, and a certain air of the apocalyptic as peace-and-love remembrance gives way to paranoia, the specter of Charles Manson, and the existential threat represented by land-developing squares and police-department bureaucracy. Phoenix is as ever a game and adventurous leading man. As "Doc," he subdues his natural tendency toward inward or even implosive intensity to deliver a loose, sweet performances as this unworldly, yet strangely clever surf detective. He is provided vibrant aid by an extensive cast with many standouts, including the enigmatic, sexy Waterston and a scene-stealing Josh Brolin as an antagonistic and tightly wound cop with a demeanor as severe as his high-and-tight haircut.

A

Yeah don't know what thompsoncory and movies35 are smoking, this movie is absolutely brilliant. Everyone is on the top of their game here in what is the funniest film of 2014. Sure, the storylines are not straightforward but they don't need to be here as the plot matches the craziness of the characters themselves. Definitely one of Anderson's best films and Waterston is one to watch out for.

We will just have to agree to disagree. One mans trash is another mans treasure.

Man. I am a big fan of PTA's films up until TWBB but I walked out of this feeling the same way I felt about The Master, only I think I liked this one less. There are some good moments sprinkled here and there, acting's fine, but the film just meanders aimlessly and by the end I just didn't really care about anything going on. I'm gonna be reserved for his future works from now on...

Oh man, where to begin with Inherent Vice? To say that Paul Thomas Anderson's newest film is not for everyone is a statement about as obvious as it is accurate. In adapting Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel, Anderson stays true to the loopy, hazy nature of the text, and the result is a film that is definitely more concerned with characters and comedy than it is with its twisty, sometimes nonsensical plot. Fortunately, all players involved embrace Anderson's approach, and the result is a frequently hilarious film whose subversions of film noir tropes and drug-fueled humor keep the film moving at a steady pace and leave the same kind of sense of unpredictability to the plot that exists within the source material. Free of the structures of the plot, the ensemble has some inspired work. Joaquin Phoenix is clearly having a blast as the perpetually-stoned protagonist, Doc, as his timing and more-than-occasional-obliviousness are spot-on. Katherine Waterston makes the most of her few scenes as Doc's sultry former lover, and Joanna Newsom is memorable as the narrator that only Doc can see and hear. Martin Short also does his best work in eons in a cameo as a crooked doctor However, the true scene stealer is Josh Brolin, whose self-seriousness amid the absurd setting is perfectly pitched; his final scene also provides for one of the film's funniest moments and images. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Inherent Vice fills a place in Paul Thomas Anderson's filmography similar to that of The Big Lebowski for the Coen Brothers: it's not top-tier, but it's a hilarious detour crafted with more thought and utter absurdity than the vast majority of comedies out there.

A-

All of that being said, I can't figure out just how in the blue (er... green?) hell a major studio greenlit this film. It's so far out there, even by the standards of a filmmaker who once built a third act around raining frogs.

INHERENT VICE

I was mentioning this film to a co-worker when another person said that this was a novel. I didn't know that but after watching this film it's probably best to just read the book. This film is a bit of a chore to get through. It's so meandering and leaves you wondering where it's going in a bad way. It's only been a few days since I watched it and I don't think I can describe the thing other than it having to do with a lady who is trying to get some money out of a rich guy. I can't remember, but when I was watching it that part of the story made me think of Big Lebowski and Bunny but this film isn't anywhere near that level. I did think Joaquin Phoenix gave an very interesting performance. I wasn't as enthused with Josh Brolin though. Overall, it was just very long, very forgetful and a chore for me.

Grade - D

I think chore is a perfect word to describe getting through this, which is so disheartening given films like There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights brim with energy.

I finally saw this and was not disappointed. I'm also glad I waited to get a new TV because Inherent Vice is one of the most beautiful films I've seen. Every scene is masterfully crafted. Not just the cinematography, which is A+ work, but the set design, costumes and focus on abstract things like sexual popsicles and reallly dirty feet. The actors make their characters compelling. They also make 70s phrases sound the funniest things in the world. Far out man. Out of sight. And the music, both original and not, is expertly placed. It's all so great that I can forgive the story being mostly nonsense. Even though the movie ran an obscene 148 minute it was never dragging. I was hooked the entire way through. Its like an 80s Metallica song. Maybe the lyrics aren't the best, but when everything else is so on point who the hell cares? A

I didn't love it, but it had just enough sassy charm and artsy weirdness to make me enjoy it more than I've enjoyed any previous Paul Thomas Anderson film. *B*

I've seen most of these only once;

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Inherent Vice
3. The Master
4. Punch Drunk Love
5. Boogie Nights
6. Hard Eight




7. Magnolia