Coming out of ‘Inherent Vice’, I heard a couple of goobers trying to decipher exactly where the FBI fit in in the labyrinthine plot. They were missing the point.
Paul Thomas Anderson is probably the greatest working American auteur (though we’ll have to see what Twin Peaks 2015 has to say about that) thanks to the melancholy ambiguity that pervades his films, from Boogie Nights to The Master, whose characters are all searching for something they’re not quite sure they want to find, but wind up realizing that the journey itself is good enough– simply because it has to be. Beautiful shots make us feel like we’re watching sunset after sunrise and that it’s pointless to try to figure out the plot—-as with most really great art, you’re not going to understand everything; the best way to appreciate it is to let it all wash over you.
Pynchon’s books are worth reading for this very reason. His numerous subplots and idiosyncratic names often leave the reader befuddled. The best way to understand them is to try to understand what we’re doing, not where we’re going. Those moments in the film where Joaquin Phoenix’s character wonders about forces of evil participating in some karmic trajectory against those who stand for good in the world–those questions are left unanswered. That’s the point. You’re not supposed to understand all the connections between characters, you’re supposed to understand that sometimes there aren’t connections, that we live in a chaotic world of evil and pleasure and people who don’t want to hurt others and those who do and sometimes it’s good (Doc) against evil (The Golden Fang) and sometimes it’s good against less-good (Bigfoot) and sometimes it’s good saving good-turned-evil (Shasta).
Sure it’s a little long, but with an amazing cast along for an ambitious and beautifully-acted, beautifully-adapted, often hilariously funny film, I’d say it’s well worth it. Just don’t hold it up against other movies this Oscar season without remembering that it’s based on a Pynchon book, and that Anderson is working in the same mold as this great American writer. He’s working as an artist.
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