Film
Inherent Vice
- Director
- Paul Thomas Anderson
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 149 mins
If ‘comic hippy noir’ is a genre, then Paul Thomas Anderson‘s follow up to the brilliant The Master slots right in alongside the Coen brothers’ classic The Big Lebowski. It also boasts the distinction of being the first film ever to be adapted from a novel by reclusive Thomas Pynchon.
Anderson reunites with The Master star Joaquin Phoenix, who slaps on an impressive pair of muttonchop sideburns to play private investigator Doc Sportello. It’s the arse end of the sixties and the counter culture has gone to, well, pot, when Doc is approached by a former lover to investigate an alleged plot by her billionaire lover’s wife and – pay attention now – the wife’s lover to have him sectioned so they can snaffle his loot. Before he knows what’s happening, our wigged-out anti-hero is all at sea in a mystery that includes Nazis, rockers, stoners, surfers and an organisation known as the Golden Fang – which could be sinister or simply a tax dodge set up by a bunch of dentists. Go here for our full review.
It’s back on screen as part of the Watershed’s Sunday brunch OK Composer: The Scores of Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke season, which forms part of Filmic ’19.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
