Reading Inherent Vice

i enjoyed this a lot, but im gonna have to see it again i think. i agree this def struck a pynchonian vibe at times but it wasn't really as madcap as I was expecting. i found myself missing pynchon's narrative voice, which is a really ridiculous criticism to throw at a movie. hence the need to see it again. had the book in my head too much.

but for all that this maybe the most cinematically restrained PTA film? hopefully a grower.

also yeah there was a LOT of mumbly dialogue.

Opens here Christmas Day. I've never read Thomas Pynchon; assuming that won't be a problem.

xp yeah i found it pretty hard to hear significant amounts of dialogue. i also honestly don't know how much you could follow if you hadn't read the book. a lot of critics say they like it much better the 2nd time around. i think viewing one is for letting it all wash over you, the second viewing is where it coheres more.

it's sweet that the soundtrack features a song by his mother-in-law

this one btw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1kDd6yBQZ4

I didn't know about that. What a song that is.

it's in at least one of the trailers (at the end IIRC)

and yeah it's a great song

Sorry, I meant I didn't know about Minnie being PTA's mother in law.

actually, i guess he and maya rudolph aren't married. but they are domestic partners for about a decade and have a few kids so i think calling minnie riperton his mother-in-law is spiritually if not technically correct.

they have a kid named minnie, too.

oh man i love that song

OMG I was trying to figure out how Melanie Jackson was related to Minnie Riperton for the longest time.

This is Anderson's best film imho. And it's deeper than the shtick of Lebowski, thanks Christ, as Howard Hampton writes in Film Comment.

Surprisingly, the movie’s more weirdly interiorized and not as expansively outgoing as the book would lead you to anticipate: the Inherent Vice of my dreams would have more sense of the jumbled archaeology of L.A. back then, more of the grunge-funk edifices, the leftover potluck from previous generations, the smog and the unexpected torrential rains, the feeling of reality bleeding and strobing like a cheap color TV picture in a thunderstorm. Master of Southern California light and industrial spaces, Anderson’s withdrawn from the landscape this time around, as though he caught a dose of agoraphobia from Doc.

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/everybody-must-get-stoned

Did not recognize either Eric Roberts or Jeannie Berlin in their one-minute scenes.

This one didn't really work on me, but I'd def agree with it being the best PTA v. 2.0

Hampton is also right that the 'something extra' is due in large part to Ms Waterston's two monologue scenes.

I'm with Eric in that it didn't work on me, in part because I've watched The Long Goodbye too many times, and despite its flaws I preferred The Master; but PTA gets the funkiness of the novel, and Phoenix once again deserves the credit. All the women except Witherspoon blurred, and maybe that's the point?

I just saw TLG again two weeks ago; this is not exactly the same thing.

Seeing this a second time in 70mm next week. Hoping my feelings about it will coalesce this time.

what'd you guys think of how PTA staged Shasta's seduction of Doc? Hampton otm about it's being a "slow drip of role-playing, self-revilement, vulnerability, and desperate control that’s indistinguishable from nihilistic abandon, expresses more about sex as a weapon.

loved how PTA shot Mrs. Wolfmann's pool party, complete with unshown heads of actors and LAPD cops grilling at BBQ in long shot -- a refinement of scenes in Boogie Nights.

should i read the book before seeing this or no

I read the book four years ago (liked it) and don't remember a thing other than a couple of lines.

So you are saying read it and then wait four years before seeing the film?

I just saw TLG again two weeks ago; this is not exactly the same thing.

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius),

Well, yeah, cuz TLG does cohere. IV isn't intended to. Martin Short's coke snortin' dentist is an ebullient hybrid of Mark Rydell and Henry Gibson.

So you are saying read it and then wait four years before seeing the film?

― Pigbag Wanderer (James Redd and the Blecchs),

Watch the movie and wait four days before recommending it to friends.

Thanks.

Is there a thread on the career of Mark Rydell?

wait a second, this was shot in 35mm, but it being exhibited in 70mm blowup. Not in NYC afaik.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1791528/technical

I'm in Austin for now--didn't realize it was just a blow up. oh well.

http://www.nndb.com/people/064/000115716/david-hemmings-1-sized.jpg

liked this a whole lot -- felt it hung together just enough more than the book. i def was expecting a little more slapstick though.

martin donovan was soooo.... martin donovan

no idea what that means, but nice to see him with a good role

i def was expecting a little more slapstick though.

ppl took PTA's Zucker Bros remarks a bit too literally I think...

The only gag that looked like something from un film de Zucker was Brolin in profile eating the banana.

Phoenix's pratfall after getting clubbed in the massage parlor.

It'd be difficult for PTA to "look like" ZAZ cuz he has a clue about where a camera goes etc.

also the scream on seeing the picture.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=16866

whaddaya think sterl 'zis rilly a thing

xp or the scene when Brolin eats Doc's weed

xp idk, rilly?

also the scream on seeing the picture

More subtle than either ZAZ or Farrellys

Let's accept this is not a ZAZ movie and move on.

What's ZAZ?

Zucker Abrahams Zucker (eg Airplane!). PTA claimed in an interview(s?) they were an influence on this film.

Ah ok, thanks.

this does capture the dense-ness of pynchon poss as well as a movie could & joaquin was so good, i dug it

also the scream on seeing the picture.

― celfie tucker 48 (s.clover), Sunday, January 4, 2015 10:38 AM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha this was awesome yes

I want the scene with Minnie Riperton to be online. I just want to watch it over and over. Amazing.

man what a song. that's one of the main things I remembered leaving the theater