Inherent Vice

“I feel like every once in a while I read some article about Paul Thomas Anderson that seems it to take for granted that Inherent Vice was at least a misstep if not an outright unwatchable mess. But this is my third favorite PTA (behind Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, but ahead of One Battle After Another—which I liked a lot!—and way, way ahead of Magnolia, which seems to get a lot more critical love but which I find just too relentlessly downbeat and depressing to take). This is not a movie you go to for a tidy, clearly structured plot or dramatic realism; for me it's about the drugged-out, paranoia-in-the-bright-Southern-California-sunshine vibe of it, the sense that there are big things going on around you all the time that you can’t quite grasp or have any control over.”

“A great story. Very approachable and hazy.”