Inherent Vice (2014)
4/10
Dazed and Really Confused
10 January 2015
Break out a pen and paper cause so much is going on it's hard to follow watching this for the first time. So many characters, so many plots surrounding sub-plots surrounding plots, you could easily lose your place if your attention wavers in the slightest. I felt like I needed to make an outline to make sense of it all. The movie is very hard to follow and needs a second viewing to fully grasp the whole thing.

My first impression is much like Joaquin Phoenix's character, a hazy pot soaked mind looking for a murderer with Bigfoot's help. No, no, he's looking for someone who was kidnapped by the Golden Fang Consortium of Nazi Heroin Smugglers led by dentist cokehead Martin Short. Or was he looking for Bigfoot's partner Littlefoot? I don't know nor do I care. One scene seemingly does not follow from the next and the whole movie became a big jumble I had no interest in solving.

All I have left in my brain are foggy recollections of details to what felt like an infinity of plots and characters. While some scenes have 'A Big Lebowski' vibe to them and were entertaining, they're sadly not enough to make me sit through this a second time. And I'm afraid without that second viewing, I'll have to live with just a brief glimpse of what might or might not be a good film. But if you have the 2h:22m to do it all again, muster up some patience, make a pot of coffee, and take good notes (some help at 1h25m). And for you truly bold viewers out there, reading the book might help.
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