Inherent Vice
1.5 Waffles!

This is one of those movies I have been anticipating for months and months. How could they go wrong? Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Joaquin Phoenix are usually words that guarantee awesomeness. Not this time.

Set in 1970 California, Phoenix stars as Doc – a private eye who enjoys recreational drugs. His former girlfriend, Shasta (Katherine Waterston), has shown up looking for help, and Doc knows he shouldn’t get involved, but, it’s Shasta.

She worries that something is up with her new, rich, married, real estate mogul boyfriend, Mickey Wolfman (Eric Roberts). When Shasta disappears, Doc feels he has to jump into the case and find her, which leads to a tangled web of cops, surfers, dentists and a mysterious secret organization known as The Golden Fang.

Can Doc get to the bottom of it?

Is there a bottom of it?

Inherent Vice plays out like a psychedelic trip in Doc’s head, which doesn’t help the audience members who are staying off drugs while watching the movie.

You can’t deny the cool vibe of Inherent Vice. Anderson (based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon) has a vivid cast of colorful characters at his disposal, and individual scenes are executed very well. It’s the overall meaninglessness of the movie and the horrible resolution that comes from nowhere that ruins Inherent Vice. It feels like every scene was conceived of to be as wacky as possible, rather than advancing a plot. This gives our actors a chance to shine, but doesn’t serve any type of story.

Phoenix is awesome as a hippie version of Columbo with his quirky personality, and overall paranoia about the world around him, but what makes Doc believable is the level of competence Phoenix instills in him when he’s not playing up the silliness for the camera.

If Doc was a fool, the audience would lose interest instantly, or Inherent Vice would become a farce. Yet, the audience is left to believe Doc will get the answers he is seeking, which would keep us involved if that was the direction of the story.

Plus, you have to love Josh Brolin as Detective Bigfoot Bjornsen. Brolin is wonderfully deadpan as the stereotypical straight-laced L.A. detective, but gets to mix it up because, underneath all of the patriotism and conservatism he exudes, Bigfoot wants to be an actor. It’s as if Bigfoot is being tempted by the hippies he hates, and it is hilarious to watch the conflict play out in him.

Also, Joanna Newsom is the perfect narrator for our tale. She gives the movie its hippie, whimsical feel, brushed with some all knowing cynicism about how the real world works along with such effortless, soulful emotion about the action on the screen. You could fall in love with her just by hearing her voice (but don’t get any ideas because she’s already married to Andy Samberg).

Anderson might have been true to the novel, but, if that’s the case, he should have stepped up as a writer and director to change the plot around to be more compelling and purposeful.

Inherent Vice is rated R for drug use throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some violence.