Paul Thomas Anderson films are in a class of their own. They all come from the mind of one man, and yet movies like Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood are completely different in so many ways.
In the two years since The Master was released, Anderson has been filming Inherent Vice, a pseudo-detective crime-comedy-drama, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon. It's been a long time since Anderson made anything that could be considered a comedy, but if the new trailer for Inherent Vice proves anything, it's that the director hasn't missed a beat.
The trailer, in typical Anderson fashion, shows off quite a bit of the plot, and it's dripping with the period-specific style and atmosphere that Anderson has been perfecting for years. The trailer also shows off the all-star cast, which includes lead Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson among several others. As an added bonus, it's genuinely funny, even with only the tiny snippets the trailer has to work with.
The film is based on the novel Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, and will be the first time Pynchon's work has been adapted to the screen. Many questioned if such a psychedelic story could be easily translated to another medium, but it seems that Anderson is, at the very least, on the right track.
The story of Inherent Vice is not a simple one to explain, but what it ultimately boils down to is a detective story. Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private detective, searches for his ex-girlfriend's boyfriend after the man goes missing (though it gets far more complicated from there). From just the trailer, it's already clear that Anderson has matched Pynchon's idea of a counter-cultural California, though it remains to be seen if the director has done the cast of the story justice.
Inherent Vice will mark the second film in which actor Joaquin Phoenix and Anderson collaborate, following The Master. Anderson also has a long list of fantastic movies under his belt, including the previously mentioned There Will Be Blood and Magnolia. Unfortunately for the director, the covetous Academy Award continues to elude him; perhaps Inherent Vice will finally win Anderson the Oscar.
The film will make its debut during the New York Film Festival on Oct. 4 before a limited opening on Dec. 12. Inherent Vice will open in theaters across the country on Jan. 9, 2015.
