Movie Review: "Inherent Vice" (2014)

I am completely going to ignore how much I love Benicio Del Toro in this film. I mean, his acting is funny, he looks great and he is possibly the best actor there. That and Josh Brolin who is always awesome. The whole scene about 'kicking' Joaquin Phoenix was hilarious - especially the fact that very few actors could do it with a straight face. That scene is the only thing about this film that gets the 2 marks for the 2/5 with most of it going to the reply 'that's assault'.

Let's now discuss why I think this is possibly Paul Thomas Anderson's worst film.

Reason Number 1: It was actually really quite vulgar

The film is vulgar without reason most of the time. It just seemed as if it was added for shock value and it was not entertaining at all. It did not add humour or move the story along in any way - I just ended up feeling a great sigh of boredom of 'oh god, is this going to go on forever or what?' And guess what? It did go on forever.

Reason Number 2: It simply was not entertaining.

The storyline was not interesting, the characters were mostly terrible people you did not care about and Joaquin Phoenix was trying to carry that s*** on his back most of the time. Poor guy. The women were all there for male-gaze value, adding nothing to the story whatsoever except for 'help me' stupidity and the men were all just gross losers (except for Benicio honestly, he could never be a gross loser).

Reason Number 3: The writing was out-of-this-world awful

I cannot honestly believe that this was written and directed by the same guy who directed There Will Be Blood. The dialogue of Inherent Vice was something to be heard because the vast majority of that movie was a mess, especially the writing. I mean Joanna Newsom is absolutely awesome but whoever wrote her dialogue and narration needs to be backhanded. It was terrible and filled with stupid 1960s phrases when I can almost guarantee that no normal person spoke that way in the 1960s. The glamorisation of the 1960s honestly did not work out - it looked and sounded silly.

Reason Number 4: Why are all the women stupid?

It's not fair because I've discussed this before but why were all the women so dumb? It was like watching a movie made of airheaded bimbos. It was so so disheartening to see the likes of Joanna Newsom and Katherine Waterston playing into these archetypes that are so massively outdated even by the time this movie was released. I know it's set in the 1960s, but it was definitely not an accurate version. I also understand it is meant to be a comedy - but rule #1 about being a good comedy film is that it has to be entertaining - see Reason Number 2 for more.

Let's lighten up the review a little bit; here are some things that I actually liked about the movie:

Number 1: Benicio Del Toro's Sailor Hat

If you did not like his little sailor hat, you are lying. It's a very nice hat and it definitely suits him. Also, his scenes were honestly the best - especially the one he serves opposite Josh Brolin.

Number 2: Joaquin Phoenix trying to save the movie

A great actor and a person that I honestly admire for all his hard work - he put everything into that acting and got almost nothing back. I think he should have gotten more recognition seeing as most of the other people he shared scenes with honestly did not pull their weight at all.

Number 3: Josh Brolin's acting

Like Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin's acting is consistently awesome and honestly, when these two men were in Sicario together I was amazed at how much I enjoyed the film. However, I do not think that Inherent Vice gave either of them enough screen time or enough freedom to do what they wanted.

I hope you understand why I didn't really like this film at all and I also hope you don't hate me for it. Other people may have found it enjoyable but I genuinely think that I never want to see this movie ever again. I will only be rewatching the scenes with Benicio Del Toro if anything.

This film is proof of why PTA should never do crime-comedy.