Inherent Vice (film)

Plot

In 1970, Shasta Fay Hepworth visits the rickety beach house of her ex-boyfriend, Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private investigator and hippie/dope head in Gordita Beach, a fictional town in Los Angeles County. Shasta tells him about her new lover, Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann, a wealthy real estate developer. She asks Doc to help prevent Mickey's wife and her lover from having Mickey abducted and committed to an insane asylum.

At his office, Doc meets with Tariq Khalil, a member of the Black Guerrilla Family. Khalil hires Doc to find Glen Charlock, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood he met in jail, who now owes him money and is one of Wolfmann's bodyguards.

Doc visits Mickey's Channel View Estates project and enters the only business in the developing strip mall, a brothel/massage parlor, where he meets an employee, Jade. Doc searches the premises for Charlock, but he is knocked on the head with a baseball bat and collapses. He awakens outside, lying next to Charlock's dead body and surrounded by policemen. Doc is brought to the police station and interrogated by Det. Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen of the LAPD. Here, Doc learns that Wolfmann has disappeared without a trace. He is helped by his attorney, Sauncho Smilax, who arranges for his release by the LAPD.

Doc then takes on his third "case" of the film. He is hired by former heroin addict Hope Harlingen, who is looking for her missing husband, Coy. She was told that Coy was dead; but she believes he is alive because, shortly after his supposed death, there was a large deposit to her bank account. Coy seeks out Doc and says he is hiding at a house in Topanga Canyon. In a second meeting, he reveals he is a police informant and fears for his life, only wanting to return to his wife and daughter.

At his office Doc finds a message from Jade who apologizes for setting him up with the police and tells him to "beware of the Golden Fang". He meets her in an alley, where she explains that the Golden Fang is an international drug smuggling operation. Doc talks to Sauncho, who gives him some information on a suspicious boat called the "Golden Fang" and tells him that, the last time the ship sailed, it was with Shasta on board. Thanks to a postcard from her, Doc finds a large building shaped suspiciously like a golden fang and meets with the dentist Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd.

The day after, Bigfoot calls Doc and tells him that the dentist has just been found dead with a neck injury – fang bites. Bigfoot also decides to help Doc about Coy and tells him to search for Puck Beaverton in Chryskylodon, an insane asylum run by a sort of cult with a connection to the Golden Fang. There, Doc finds Mickey, who is being eyed by the FBI, and manages to talk to him. The man tells him he had been feeling guilty for the negativity that his real-estate business has caused and wants to give away all his money. He now appears to be a happy member of the cult.

When Doc returns home to his beach house, he is greeted by Shasta, who has returned and is indifferent to all the trouble her disappearance has caused. She confesses to being on a "three-hour tour" and that she was brought along as inherent vice. She and Doc have sex; and when she tells him "It doesn't mean we're back together," Doc replies, "Of course not!"

Penny, an assistant district attorney with whom Doc was having a fling, provides him with confidential files from which he learns that the loan shark Adrian Prussia is paid by the police department to kill people for them and that one of his victims was Bigfoot's former partner. Prussia is tied to the Golden Fang and Doc learns that Glen Charlock was involved with a deal, which is how he ended up dead. 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 but after being driven home by Bigfoot, Doc learns that he has been set up: Bigfoot has planted some smuggled heroin in his car. Doc successfully arranges for the drugs to be returned to the Golden Fang in exchange for Coy's freedom.

The film ends as Doc and Shasta ride in a car going to an unknown destination. Doc states that this doesn't mean they are back together. She replies, jokingly, "Of course not."

Development

It was first reported in December 2010 that Anderson wanted to adapt Inherent Vice; at the time, he had been writing a treatment and started on a script after The Master had been shelved indefinitely months prior. 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. By February 2011, Anderson had written a first draft and was more than halfway done with a second draft. The first draft was written without a narrator but the character of Sortilège was later turned into the voice of the narrator. 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.

This is the first film adaptation from a Thomas Pynchon novel with Anderson describing it "like a Cheech & Chong movie". Years prior, Anderson considered adapting Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland but could not figure out how but when Inherent Vice came out he was drawn to it and wrote the film concurrently with The Master. Anderson significantly changed the ending from the novel 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." Anderson drew inspiration from Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, and Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke. 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 Police Squad!, Top Secret!, and Airplane!. 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.

Casting

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. Downey, Jr. stated in December 2011 that the planned collaboration was "probably true". 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. Downey, Jr. later said that Anderson wanted to make the film with Phoenix because he was too old.

In May 2013, it was reported that Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short, and Jena Malone were in talks to join the film. In May 2013, it was reported that Josh Brolin joined the cast and that Katherine Waterston joined as the lead female role. In June 2013, it was reported that Peter McRobbie and Sasha Pieterse joined the cast. In July 2013, it was reported that Timothy Simons joined the cast. In October 2013, it was reported that Michael K. Williams joined the cast.

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. 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.

Filming

Principal photography began in May 2013, and it was reported that shooting was to take place until August 2, 2013. 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. In June 2014, filming also took place in Pasadena, and aboard the tall ship American Pride located in Long Beach.

The set has been described as organized chaos but the cast felt protected when they took big risks. Short stated that "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." 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."

According to Waterston, Anderson did not have a clear goal while on set but it did not feel chaotic. Brolin expressed similar feelings saying that "It was crazy, chaotic but really, really gratifying." 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. Pieterse stated that Anderson allowed "freedom and flexibility to really dive into your character and shape the scene". Wilson said "Sometimes I wouldn't necessarily know what I was doing. We were encouraged to kind of do anything."

Music

On February 6, 2014, The Film Music Reporter confirmed that Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood would compose the music for the film. His score was recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. This is the third time Greenwood has scored an Anderson film, the first two being There Will Be Blood and The Master. An unreleased Radiohead song called "Spooks" appears on the soundtrack, as do recordings from the late 1960s and early 1970s by Neil Young, Can, and The Marketts, among others. The film soundtrack was released by Nonesuch Records on December 16.

The film features a cameo by Orange County-based music group The Growlers.

Release

Inherent Vice premiered as the centerpiece at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 2014. The film received a limited release on December 12, 2014, before being released in 645 theaters on January 9, 2015.

This film earned $8 million domestically and $6.6 million internationally, despite the positive reviews bringing its final gross to $14.6 million - around six million short of earning its budget back.

Reception

Inherent Vice was met with general acclaim. Critics praised the film for its performances, particularly those of Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin and Katherine Waterston, while some were frustrated by its complicated plot. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 74%, based on 223 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's 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." At Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Film Journal International's Ethan Alter commented that the film is "confounding, challenging and consistently unique." 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." Collider.com's Adam Chitwood named it one of the top ten films of 2014.

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.

Top ten lists

Inherent Vice was listed on many critics' top ten lists of 2014 movies.