This latest image has arrived online from Paul Thomas Anderson’s hugely anticipated crime drama, ‘Inherent Vice.’ The film, based on the 2009 crime novel by Thomas Pynchon, stars Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson, Jena Malone, Michael K. Williams, Katherine Waterston, Martin Short and Maya Rudolph. Jonny Greenwood is again providing the soundtrack after scoring Anderson′s ‘There Will Be Blood’ and ‘The Master’ (two masterpieces, in my eyes).
In addition to this image, New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones recently opened up about ‘Inherent Vice’ during an interview with the
Film Society Of Lincoln Center. On the tone of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest flick, Jones said,
“It’s like being in a time machine, going back to the time of mutton chops and Neil Young… it’s the first [Thomas] Pynchon film adaptation, and it really catches his tone. It really catches [his] antic nature: the crazy names of characters, the nutty behavior, and then also the emotional undertone. It has the flavor of Pynchon. It has this ‘Big Lebowski’ element to one side of it, but the emotional undertone, the desperation, the paranoia, and the yearning in the film… [Paul Thomas Anderson's] an absolutely amazing filmmaker and it’s incredible to see him responding to someone else’s creation and then building his own creation out of it.”
Ken Jones added,
“I was born in 1960, but I certainly remember 1971 very well and I gotta say, from the minute the movie started to the minute it ended, I was back—way back—to the point where I was thinking “Gee, my son was born in the ’90s.” So it’s a different kind of relationship that he would have. It’s an amazing piece of work, and at this point Joaquin Phoenix and Paul have something so rare between them as an actor and director, and Sam Waterston’s daughter, Katherine, is in it, and she’s riveting every minute she’s on screen. It’s quite a film.”
Set in 1970 Los Angeles, ‘Inherent Vice’ follows the drug-fueled detective Larry “Doc” Sportello (Phoenix) as he investigates the case of a kidnapped girl. The film opens on December 12th in the US and January 30th in the UK. The synopsis for the ‘Inherent Vice’ novel can be read below.
In ‘Inherent Vice,’ when private eye Doc Sportello’s ex-old lady suddenly out of nowhere shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend whom she just happens to be in love with, and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a loony bin… well, easy for her to say.
It’s the tail end of the psychedelic ’60s and paranoia is running the day and Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the moment, like “trip” or “groovy,” that’s being way too overused—except this one usually leads to trouble.
With a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, LAPD Detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists… Part surf noir, part psychedelic romp – all Thomas Pynchon.
