Inherent Vice, Awkward Mood

Inherent Vice, Awkward Mood

If the options for an Inherent Vice movie were Joaquin Phoenix reciting Pynchon’s best lines in a grave tone OR Joaquin Phoenix slipping in and out of mania while falling down a lot, physically, this seems to have been the right choice. It’s just barely apparent in the trailer, but here is something that I’m curious to see in practice: Robert Elswit, longtime Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator, is listed as the movie’s cinematographer. Elswit’s all BIG SKIES and SYMMETRY and LINGERING SHOTS and MUSCULAR ACTION. There’s not a whole lot of comedy in his credits! And certainly nothing quite like this: “It’s a stoner detective film so overstuffed with visual gags and gimmicks that the filmmaker said he was inspired by slapstick spoofs like ‘Top Secret!’ and ‘Airplane!’”