Trailer Park | Inherent Vice

It's a cross-media dream-team as award-winning director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights) adapts celebrated novelist Thomas Pynchon's psychedelic 'surf-noir' with the help of a stellar cast headlined by Joaquin Phoenix.

Vice squad: Katherine Waterson sets the plot of 'surfer noir' Inherent Vice in motion when she calls on an ex.
Vice squad: Katherine Waterson sets the plot of 'surfer noir' Inherent Vice in motion when she calls on an ex.

When private eye Doc Sportello’s (Joaquin Phoenix) ex-old lady suddenly out of nowhere shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend whom she just happens to be in love with, and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a loony bin…well, easy for her to say.

 

It’s the tail end of the psychedelic `60s and paranoia is running the day and Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the moment, like “trip” or “groovy,” that’s being way too overused—except this one usually leads to trouble.

From the looks of it, this adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel of the same name plays a little bit like the Coen Bros's The Big Lebowski in a bit of a bad mood, with Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, The Master) directing ostensible detective story that gives way to paranoid screwball comedy.

Both Pynchon and Anderson have, in their own ways, served as eagle-eyed observers of the contours of American culture in their respective mediums over the years. Here's hoping that this dream-marriage yields tangible fruit come Christmastime, when the film opens in the US.  

The stellar cast is rounded up by Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short and Jena Malone.