Inherent Vice

Deeper View

American author Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice long held its place in the pantheon of novels often described as “unfilmable”. The darkly comic detective novel, set in 1970s California, deals with themes of the drug culture and counterculture of it’s period setting, a postmodern novel that warps the stylistic conventions of detective fiction. The plot follows sleuth Larry “Doc” Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to investigate a scheme involving a prominent land developer and was thought to be so complexly interwoven that only a madman or fool would dare attempt to adapt it. Then in 2015 came Paul Thomas Anderson to bust the myth of a book too bizarre to make into a movie - much like the folklore of Dune, American Psycho and so on - to create a film that is a total vibe. If you can get on its wavelength then you can not help but love this bellbottomed LA noir tale of the unexplained.

Synopsis

In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.