Inherent Vice (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson).

Anderson has made a densely fluid yet simultaneously baffling labyrinth of a film about a very specific time and place as a cinematic mixture of his previous works. The atmospheric mood and ambience is spot on as the Thomas Pynchon dialogue, moments of enlightened comedy, and dramatic candour lift the impossibly hard to follow yet amusingly senseless plotting. It’s a remarkable achievement of acting and literary adaptation, flowing every part of the novel with cinematic flourishes and precise editing. It’s a sublime mood piece of ensemble filmmaking with subtle sociopolitical commentary. Only PTA could get away with such a charming mess of a film as he makes (very) loose enough sense of Pynchon’s material.

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