Inherent Vice | |
---|---|
Directed by | Paul Thomas Anderson |
Screenplay by | Paul Thomas Anderson |
Based on | Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
Edited by | Leslie Jones |
Music by | Jonny Greenwood |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures [1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 149 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $20 million [3] |
Box office | $14.7 million [4] |
Inherent Vice is a 2014 American period neo-noir mystery comedy film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon. The ensemble cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Martin Short and Joanna Newsom. The film follows Larry "Doc" Sportello, a well-intentioned but fumbling stoner, hippie, and private investigator embroiled in the criminal underworld of 1970 Los Angeles, investigating three cases linked by the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and her wealthy new boyfriend.
Anderson's adaptation of Inherent Vice had been in development since 2010; it is the first and so far only Pynchon novel to be adapted for the screen. It is Anderson's second collaboration with Phoenix, following The Master (2012), and involves a number of his other recurring collaborators, including producers Daniel Lupi and JoAnne Sellar, cinematographer Robert Elswit, editor Leslie Jones, and composer Jonny Greenwood.
Inherent Vice premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 2014, and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 12, 2014, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, costumes, and screenplay, but some criticizing the complicated plot. It was nominated for several awards, including two at the 87th Academy Awards and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Phoenix at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. The National Board of Review named it one of the ten best films of the year. Some critics said that Inherent Vice has the makings of a cult film. [5] In 2016, it was voted the 75th best film since 2000 in an international critics' poll. [6]
In 1970, Shasta Fay Hepworth visits the beach house of her ex-boyfriend, Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private investigator and hippie in Gordita Beach, Los Angeles County. She tells him about her new lover, Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann, a wealthy real estate developer, and asks him to help prevent Mickey's wife and her lover from abducting Mickey and committing him to an insane asylum.
Doc meets with Tariq Khalil, a member of the Black Guerrilla Family, who hires him to find Glen Charlock, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood he met in jail, who owes him money and is one of Wolfmann's bodyguards. He visits Mickey's Channel View Estates project, entering the only business in the developing strip mall, a massage parlor, where he meets an employee, Jade. He searches the premises for Charlock but is hit with a baseball bat and collapses. Doc wakes outside, lying next to Charlock's dead body and surrounded by policemen. Interrogated by LAPD detective Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen, he learns that Wolfmann has disappeared. His attorney, Sauncho Smilax, arranges for his release by the LAPD.
Doc is hired by former heroin addict Hope Harlingen, who is looking for her missing husband, Coy. Although told that Coy is dead, she believes he is alive due to a large deposit in her bank account. Jade leaves Doc a message apologizing for setting him up with the police and telling him to "beware the Golden Fang." He meets her in an alley, where she explains the Golden Fang is an international drug smuggling operation. Jade introduces Doc to Coy, who tells him he is hiding at a house in Topanga Canyon. In a later meeting, he explains he is a police informant and fears for his life, wanting only to return to his wife and daughter. Doc talks to Sauncho, who tells him about the suspicious boat, the Golden Fang; the last time it sailed, Shasta was on board. Thanks to a postcard from her, Doc finds a large building shaped like a golden fang and meets dentist Rudy Blatnoyd.
Bigfoot calls Doc and tells him that Blatnoyd has just been found dead with fang bites on his neck. Bigfoot decides to help Doc find Coy and tells him to search for Puck Beaverton in Chryskylodon, an asylum run by a cult connected to the Golden Fang. There, Doc finds Mickey, who is being watched by the FBI. Mickey tells him he felt guilty for the negativity his real-estate business caused and wants to give his money away, appearing to be a happy member of the cult. Doc also glimpses Puck and Coy. When Doc returns home to his beach house, he is greeted by Shasta, who has returned and is indifferent to the trouble her disappearance has caused. She tells him Mickey is back with his wife. Shasta confesses to having been on the Golden Fang with Mickey on a "three-hour tour" and says she was brought along to be used sexually by all of Mickey's friends. She brags about what she did on the boat to provoke Doc into sex, then tells him they still are not back together.
Penny, an assistant district attorney with whom Doc is having a fling, gives him confidential files from which he learns that the LAPD pays the loan shark Adrian Prussia to kill people and that one of his victims was Bigfoot's former partner. Prussia is tied to the Golden Fang, and Doc learns that Charlock was involved with a deal, which is why he was killed. Doc visits Adrian, noticing his obsession with baseball bats, but is abducted and drugged by his partner, Puck. He manages to escape, killing both Puck and Adrian. Bigfoot appears and rescues him, driving him home, but Doc discovers he has been set up: Bigfoot has planted heroin in his car (stolen from the Golden Fang as revenge for murdering his partner). Doc arranges for the drugs to be returned to the Golden Fang in exchange for Coy's freedom. He drives Coy home and watches as he's reunited with Hope. Bigfoot busts down Doc's door, eats an entire tray of marijuana that Doc is using and leaves, noting that he knows why Doc did what he did. Doc and Shasta drive off together, and he tells her this does not mean they are back together.
|
|
It was first reported in December 2010 that Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to adapt Inherent Vice ; at the time, he had been writing a treatment and started on a script after The Master (2012) had been shelved indefinitely months prior. [7] Anderson originally adapted the entire 384-page novel sentence by sentence which made it easier for him to cut down the script than the novel. [8] By February 2011, Anderson had written a first draft and was more than halfway done with a second draft. [9] The first draft was written without a narrator but the character of Sortilège was later turned into the voice of the narrator. [8] In September 2012, Anderson stated that he was still writing the script but was hoping he could get Inherent Vice into production and have a few years of being more productive. [10] [11]
This is the first film adaptation from a Thomas Pynchon novel, [12] [13] with Anderson describing it "like a Cheech & Chong movie". [11] Years prior, Anderson considered adapting Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland , but could not figure out how. When Inherent Vice came out, he was drawn to it and wrote the film concurrently with The Master. [8] Anderson significantly changed the ending from the novel [8] and described the novel as "deeply written and beautifully profound stuff mixed in with just the best fart jokes and poop jokes that you can imagine." [14] Anderson drew inspiration from The Big Sleep (1946), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye (1973), and Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (1978). [8] [14] [15] Anderson has said he tried to cram as many jokes onto the screen as Pynchon squeezed onto the page and that the visual gags and gimmicks were inspired by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker-style slapstick spoofs like the 1982 television series Police Squad! , and the films Airplane! (1980) Top Secret! (1984). [8] Anderson also used the underground comic strip Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers as what he has described as an invaluable "research bible" for the writing process. [13]
Robert Downey Jr. was reportedly interested in the role of Larry "Doc" Sportello and was making plans to start shooting in the fall of 2011 since he had dropped out of Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). [9] [16] Downey Jr. stated in December 2011 that the planned collaboration was "probably true". [17] In January 2013, it was reported that Joaquin Phoenix was in talks for the lead and that Downey Jr. had ultimately passed on the role. [18] Downey Jr. later said that Anderson wanted to make the film with Phoenix because he was too old. [19]
In May 2013, it was reported that Benicio del Toro, [20] Owen Wilson, [21] Reese Witherspoon, [22] Martin Short, [23] and Jena Malone [23] were in talks to join the film. In May 2013, it was reported that Josh Brolin [24] joined the cast and that Katherine Waterston joined as the lead female role. [25] In June 2013, it was reported that Peter McRobbie [26] and Sasha Pieterse [27] joined the cast. In July 2013, it was reported that Timothy Simons joined the cast. [28] In October 2013, it was reported that Michael K. Williams joined the cast. [29]
In September 2014, it was reported that Pynchon may have a cameo in the film, which Anderson would not confirm, citing Pynchon's choice to stay out of the public spotlight. [8] Brolin went as far as to confirm the cameo and claimed that Pynchon was on set but that nobody knew it was him as he stayed in the corner. [8]
Principal photography began in May 2013, and it was reported that shooting was to take place until August 2, 2013. [30] Shooting permits in California covered a San Fernando Valley warehouse, a storefront on Slauson Boulevard, driving shots in the Canoga Park area, driving shots in canyon roads above Malibu and a warehouse in Chinatown. [30] In June 2013, filming also took place in Pasadena, and aboard the tall ship American Pride located in Long Beach. [31]
The set has been described as organized chaos, but the cast felt protected when they took big risks. [14] Short stated, "If you're working with a great director, you feel very, very, very safe because you know that all the decisions will be made months later in the editing room." [14] Malone stated that "it was a very structured process" and that the "chaos can only come from a grounded, logical base because you have to know where you're going to be spinning from. The logic becomes the chaos and the chaos becomes the logic." [14]
According to Waterston, Anderson did not have a clear goal while on set but it did not feel chaotic. [32] Brolin said "It was crazy, chaotic but really, really gratifying." [33] Brolin also stated that there was "a really strange lack of pretense" but that Anderson would work with the actors when they felt something was not working. [32] Pieterse stated that Anderson allowed "freedom and flexibility to really dive into your character and shape the scene". [34] Wilson said "Sometimes I wouldn't necessarily know what I was doing. We were encouraged to kind of do anything." [14]
The Inherent Vice soundtrack was composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. [35] It was Greenwood's third collaboration with Anderson, following There Will Be Blood (2007) and The Master. [36]
The score includes a version of an unreleased Radiohead song, "Spooks", performed by Greenwood and members of Supergrass. [37] Greenwood said Radiohead's version was "a half-idea we never made work live", describing it as a pastiche of the Pixies and surf music. [37] The soundtrack also includes tracks from the late 1960s and early 1970s by Neil Young, Can, and the Marketts, among others. It was released by Nonesuch Records on December 16. [38]
Inherent Vice premiered as the centerpiece at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 2014. [39] The film received a limited release on December 12, 2014, [40] before being released in 645 theaters on January 9, 2015. [41]
The film earned $8 million domestically and $6.6 million internationally, bringing its final gross to $14.6 million. [4]
Inherent Vice was met with positive reviews. Critics praised the film for its performances, particularly those of Phoenix, Brolin, and Waterston, while some were frustrated by its complicated plot. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on 258 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Inherent Vice may prove frustrating for viewers who demand absolute coherence, but it does justice to its acclaimed source material – and should satisfy fans of director P.T. Anderson." [42] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [43]
Film Journal International 's Ethan Alter commented that the film is "confounding, challenging and consistently unique." [44] IGN reviewer Matt Patches gave the film an 8.9 out of 10 score, saying "There's nothing certain – a surprisingly rewarding sensation that demands repeat viewings. There's so much, too much, to soak up, and all the laughter Anderson piles on top of the thematics means there's plenty to miss. Inherent Vice is a high grain strain: Provocative, hilarious, and its own breed of weird." [45] Collider's Adam Chitwood named it one of the top ten films of 2014. [46]
The film was ranked 75th in a survey of 177 critics conducted by the BBC in 2016 to determine the 100 best films of the 21st century. [6]
Inherent Vice was listed on many film critics' top ten lists of 2014 films. [47]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
87th Academy Awards | February 22, 2015 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | [49] |
Best Costume Design | Mark Bridges | Nominated | |||
ACE Eddie Awards | January 30, 2015 | Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical | Leslie Jones | Nominated | [50] |
Art Directors Guild Awards | January 31, 2015 | Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film | David Crank | Nominated | [51] |
Boston Online Film Critics Association | December 6, 2014 | The Ten Best Films of the Year | Won | [52] | |
Boston Society of Film Critics | December 7, 2014 | Best Use of Music in a Film | Jonny Greenwood | Won | [53] |
Central Ohio Film Critics Association | January 8, 2015 | Best Supporting Actor | Josh Brolin | Runner-up (tie) | [54] [55] |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | |||
Costume Designers Guild | February 17, 2015 | Excellence in Period Film | Mark Bridges | Nominated | [56] |
Critics' Choice Movie Awards | January 15, 2015 | Best Supporting Actor | Josh Brolin | Nominated | [57] |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | |||
Best Art Direction | David Crank Amy Wells | Nominated | |||
Best Costume Design | Mark Bridges | Nominated | |||
Denver Film Critics Society | January 12, 2015 | Best Picture | Inherent Vice | Nominated | [58] [59] |
Best Director | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actor | Josh Brolin | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actress | Katherine Waterston | Nominated | |||
Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Won | |||
Best Score | Jonny Greenwood | Nominated | |||
Film Independent Spirit Awards | February 21, 2015 | Robert Altman Award | Won | [60] | |
Georgia Film Critics Association | January 9, 2015 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | [61] [62] |
Best Cinematography | Robert Elswit | Nominated | |||
Best Production Design | David Crank | Nominated | |||
Golden Globe Awards | January 11, 2015 | Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Joaquin Phoenix | Nominated | [63] |
Houston Film Critics Society Awards | January 12, 2015 | Best Picture | Inherent Vice | Nominated | [64] [65] |
Best Director | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | |||
Best Supporting Actor | Josh Brolin | Nominated | |||
Best Cinematography | Robert Elswit | Nominated | |||
Best Poster | Inherent Vice | Nominated | |||
International Film Music Critics Association Awards | February 19, 2015 | Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film | Jonny Greenwood | Nominated | [66] |
London Film Critics' Circle | January 18, 2015 | Technical Achievement Award | Mark Bridges (costumes) | Nominated | [67] |
Los Angeles Film Critics Association | December 7, 2014 | Best Music Score (tied with Mica Levi for Under the Skin ) | Jonny Greenwood | Won | [68] |
National Board of Review | January 6, 2015 | Top 10 Films | Won | [69] | |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Won | |||
San Francisco Film Critics Circle | December 14, 2014 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Won | [70] [71] |
Best Production Design | David Crank | Nominated | |||
Best Editing | Leslie Jones | Nominated | |||
Satellite Award | February 15, 2015 | Best Supporting Actress | Katherine Waterston | Nominated | [72] |
Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | |||
Best Cinematography | Robert Elswit | Nominated | |||
Saturn Award | June 25, 2015 | Best Action or Adventure Film | Inherent Vice | Nominated | [73] |
Best Supporting Actor | Josh Brolin | Nominated | |||
USC Scripter Award | January 31, 2015 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Paul Thomas Anderson | Nominated | [74] |
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists.
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and comedian. He has frequently worked with filmmaker Wes Anderson, with whom he has shared writing and acting credits on the films Bottle Rocket (1996), Rushmore (1998), and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)—the latter received a nomination for the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay. He has also appeared in Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), and The French Dispatch (2021). Wilson also starred in the Woody Allen romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011) as disenchanted screenwriter Gil Pender, a role which received a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2014, he appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice and Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way.
Paul Thomas Anderson, also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. His accolades include a BAFTA Award, and nominations for eleven Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He has also won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and both the Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Josh James Brolin is an American actor. A son of actor James Brolin, he gained fame in his youth for his role in the adventure film The Goonies (1985). After years of decline, Brolin had a resurgence with his starring role in the crime film No Country for Old Men (2007). Brolin received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for portraying Dan White in the biopic Milk (2008).
Inherent Vice is a novel by the American author Thomas Pynchon, originally published on August 4, 2009. A darkly comic detective novel set in 1970s California, the plot follows sleuth Larry "Doc" Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to investigate a scheme involving a prominent land developer. Themes of drug culture and counterculture are prominently featured. It is considered a postmodern novel that warps the stylistic conventions of detective fiction. Critical reception was largely positive, with reviewers describing Inherent Vice as one of Pynchon's more accessible works. The novel was adapted into a 2014 film of the same name.
Everest is a 2015 biographical survival film directed and produced by Baltasar Kormákur and written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy. It stars an ensemble cast of Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Martin Henderson and Emily Watson. Based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, it focuses on the survival attempts of two expedition groups, one led by Rob Hall (Clarke) and the other by Scott Fischer (Gyllenhaal). Kormákur, Universal Pictures, Walden Media, Cross Creek Pictures and Working Title Films dedicated the film to the late British actress Natasha Richardson.
Paul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He has directed nine feature-length films, five short films, twenty three music videos, one documentary, one television episode as a guest segment director, and one theatrical play. He made his directorial debut with the mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), at the age of 18, about a pornographic actor in the 1970s. Anderson followed it five years later with another short film, Cigarettes & Coffee (1993). Anderson wrote and directed the crime film Hard Eight (1996), starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. The film was well received. Using the basis of The Dirk Diggler Story, Anderson wrote and directed an expansion of the film, Boogie Nights (1997). It stars Mark Wahlberg as an actor in the Golden Age of Porn from the 1970s to the 1980s. The film received acclaim from critics and was a commercial success; at the 70th Academy Awards ceremony, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay.
Sisters is a 2015 American comedy film directed by Jason Moore, written by Paula Pell and is the second collaboration between Tina Fey and Amy Poehler following the film Baby Mama (2008). The rest of the cast consists of Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz, James Brolin, John Cena, John Leguizamo, Bobby Moynihan, and Dianne Wiest.
Sicario is a 2015 American action thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve, written by Taylor Sheridan in his screenwriting debut and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin. The film follows a principled FBI special agent who is enlisted by a government task force to bring down the leader of a powerful and brutal Mexican drug cartel. Sicario was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It began a limited release in the United States on September 18, 2015, followed by a nationwide release on October 2, 2015.
The 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards, honoring the best independent films of 2014, were presented by Film Independent on February 21, 2015. The nominations were announced on November 25, 2014. The ceremony was hosted by Fred Armisen and Kristen Bell, and aired live for the first time on IFC.
Molly's Game is a 2017 American biographical film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2014 memoir by Molly Bloom. It stars Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Joe Keery, Brian D'Arcy James, and Bill Camp.
Downsizing is a 2017 American science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Payne and Jim Taylor, and starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, and Kristen Wiig. It tells the story of Paul Safranek, who decides to undergo a recently invented procedure to shrink his body so he can start a new life in an experimental community, which he ends up doing alone when his wife backs out at the last minute; his journey takes an unexpected turn after he befriends an impoverished activist. Principal photography for the film began in Ontario, Canada, on April 1, 2016.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a 2018 American crime thriller film directed by Stefano Sollima and written by Taylor Sheridan. A sequel to 2015's Sicario, the film features Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Donovan, and Raoul Trujillo reprising their roles, with Isabela Moner, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Catherine Keener joining the cast. The story relates to human trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico border and an attempt by the United States government to incite increased conflict among the cartels.
The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter is a 2018 American comedy-drama film directed by Jody Hill and written by Hill, John Carcieri, and Danny McBride. The film stars Josh Brolin, Montana Jordan, and McBride.
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack album composed by Alexandre Desplat for the 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson. The 32-track album was released on March 4, 2014, through ABKCO Records, produced by Anderson along with music supervisor Randall Poster. Unlike their previous ventures, the soundtrack to this film did not feature contemporary pop hits due to the classical roots of the film's music.
Inherent Vice (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2014 film of the same name. It features an original score composed by Jonny Greenwood, along with music by Can, the Marketts, Minnie Riperton, Kyu Sakamoto, Neil Young, Les Baxter and Chuck Jackson. "Spooks" was released as a single on December 9, 2014. Nonesuch Records released the soundtrack through ITunes on December 15, and a wide release, the following day.