Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice is a slow-burning, drug-soaked mystery that turns the 1970s Los Angeles of Thomas Pynchon’s novel into a foggy, paranoid funhouse. Joaquin Phoenix plays Doc Sportello, a stoner private eye whose ex-girlfriend shows up asking for help. The case leads him through a maze of real estate developers, motorcycle gangs, and government agents, all while the film keeps its own rhythm, moving at a pace that feels like a hangover.
The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 2014, and reached theaters on December 12, 2014, through Warner Bros. Pictures. It runs 149 minutes, and that length is not a weakness — it lets the film breathe.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
Doc Sportello’s Case
Doc is a fumbling investigator who is also a hippie and a smoker. When Shasta Fay Hepworth comes to him, she is worried her new boyfriend, Mickey Wolfmann, is about to be kidnapped by his wife and her lover and committed to an insane asylum. Doc agrees to look into it.
He meets Tariq Khalil, a member of the Black Guerrilla Family, who hires him to find Glen Charlock, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Doc visits Mickey’s Channel View Estates project, where he finds Jade working at a massage parlor. He searches the premises but is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, Charlock is dead and surrounded by policemen.
Interrogated by LAPD detective Christian F. “Bigfoot” Bjornsen, Doc learns that Mickey has disappeared. His lawyer, Sauncho Smilax, Esq., arranges his release. Doc is then hired by Hope Harlingen, a former heroin addict looking for her missing husband, Coy. Though told Coy is dead, she believes he is alive because of a large deposit in her bank account.
Doc is questioned by the FBI about his meeting with Tariq. He discovers they want to frame Wolfmann’s disappearance and Charlock’s murder as the work of the Black Panthers. Jade leaves Doc a message apologizing for calling the police on him and warning him to beware the Golden Fang. Doc meets Coy in an alley, where Jade introduces Doc to Coy, who tells him he is hiding in Topanga Canyon.
The Ensemble Cast
Phoenix carries the film as Doc, a man who is both smart and lost in his own haze. Josh Brolin is a perfect Bigfoot, a cop who is both sincere and corrupt. Owen Wilson plays Coy as a nervous wreck, and Katherine Waterston is excellent as Shasta, a woman who keeps secrets better than anyone else in the room.
Reese Witherspoon appears as Deputy D.A. Penny Kimball, a prosecutor who is both charming and ruthless. Benicio del Toro plays Sauncho Smilax, a lawyer who is always a few steps ahead of everyone else. Jena Malone plays Hope Harlingen, and Maya Rudolph plays Petunia Leeway. Joanna Newsom narrates the film as Sortilège, a presence that comments on the action without ever explaining it.
“Love usually leads to trouble.”
That tagline captures the film’s central tension: Doc’s love for Shasta pulls him into a world of violence and betrayal. The film keeps circling back to this idea, even as it loses itself in side roads and tangents.
The Production
Anderson’s adaptation of Inherent Vice had been in development since 2010. This is the first Pynchon novel to be adapted for the screen. Anderson was inspired by Pynchon’s novel V. while writing the screenplay for The Master (2012), and would later loosely adapt Vineland into One Battle After Another (2025).
The film’s production is a reunion for Anderson’s regular collaborators. Producers Daniel Lupi and JoAnne Sellar worked with him again. Cinematographer Robert Elswit shot it, editor Leslie Jones cut it, and composer Jonny Greenwood wrote the score.
Robert Downey Jr. was initially attached to play Doc, but he ultimately passed. Phoenix took over.
A Film Worth Watching
Inherent Vice is not a fast film. It is a film that trusts the audience to sit with its slow, circular logic. The plot is dense, but it rewards patience. The performances are strong across the board, and the chemistry between Phoenix and Waterston is the heart of the movie.
The film is also a visual treat. Anderson’s direction is confident, and the cinematography captures the foggy, paranoid world of 1970 Los Angeles. The score by Greenwood adds to the dreamlike quality of the film.
The film drags in its middle stretch, and some viewers may lose patience with its deliberate pace. But the payoff is worth waiting for. The final act ties everything together, and the film ends on a note that feels both sad and hopeful.
Inherent Vice is a strange, beautiful, and occasionally frustrating film. It is a worthy adaptation of Pynchon’s work, and it stands as one of Anderson’s best films. It earns an 8.1/10.
Key Facts
– Runtime: 149 minutes
– Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
– Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
– Based on the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon
– Premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 2014
– Limited theatrical release in the United States on December 12, 2014
– Cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, Joanna Newsom
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