Inherent Vice (2014, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

The experience of watching "Inherent Vice" is like the subjective experience of its lead character, Doc Sportello (Joaquin Pheonix):  it is a paranoia-inducing, confusing, tangential, meandering, drug-fueled mind-trip.  It is a neo-noir and will remind viewers of such other films as Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye" and The Coen Brother's "The Big Lebowski".  Another film that it had echos of for me was John Cassavetes' "The Killing of Chinese Bookie".

You have to concentrate heavily to grasp all its hard-boiled dialogue and intrigue and I cannot confess to have done that on my initial viewing.  But it cast a spell on me with its mystery and idiosyncratic structure, dialogue, and characters.  It has a unique soul to it and a foreboding, murky atmosphere that admittedly will probably not win over a majority of viewers and non-PT Anderson die-hard fans.

The period detail of 1970 California is spot-on and the soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood is compellingly realized.   It is based on a novel by Thomas Pynchon.  I read Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" once.  It was one of the hardest to comprehend novels I have ever read but, somehow, like "Inherent Vice" it is still riveting and jars you emotionally and intellectually.

I don't think will end up being my favourite PT film.  But it is a worthy addition to his unparalleled cinematic canon.