Inherent Vice

★★★★★ 'Blissed-out bamboozlement' The Telegraph

★★★★★ 'Deliriously masterful sunlight noir' The Guardian

Stoner private dick Doc Sportello (Phoenix) is trying to track down his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay (a luminous Katherine Waterston), and the property magnate she’s been fooling around with (Eric Roberts) in late-’60s California.

Involving a hippie-hating cop (Brolin), a spaced-out snitch for hire (Owen Wilson), Sportello’s uptight DA lover (Witherspoon), a philosophising lawyer (Benicio Del Toro), and a laugh-out-loud-funny Martin Short as a sex-addicted coke-head, the story becomes ever more complex and elaborate.

Based on Thomas Pynchon’s picaresque novel, Inherent Vice is director Paul Thomas Anderson’s funniest work yet – and easily as compelling as his last, The Master, which also starred Joaquin Phoenix. As in Boogie Nights, an ensemble cast who are clearly having a ball, and the seedy authenticity of post-hippie La-La land, further enhance the film’s immense entertainment value.

Inherent Vice, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA 2014, 148 mins., 

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