By Brenton Thom INHERENT VICE INHERENT VICE is the seventh feature film by director Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is basically a 1970s detective noir story. As I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think about CHINATOWN and THE BIG LEBOWSKI in their similar aspects. To say the least, the plot is very complicated and quite convoluted. But basically a dope-head private investigator, Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), is hired by his ex-lover to prevent a nefarious scheme being perpetrated against her current lover. Doc is also hired to look for someone that owes another person money. Doc ends up falling into a rabbit hole with different parties and law enforcement, all of them connected to a central plot device involving drugs smuggling, murder, and sex. As I said, there is a lot going on and if you don’t pay attention you will definitely get lost. There are a lot of names thrown around and a lot of little subplots going on that you have to work hard to keep track of. One thing that is a good are the performances. All the actors play characters that are all unique in their own way. There are plenty of funny beats, and they play off each other with good chemistry. Much of the performances also involve subtle stuff that’s not said verbally, which I think is outstanding. The movie shows a different side of Los Angeles that we are not used to seeing, and there is this whole subculture and underground side that isn't normally depicted in movie. The film feels realistic in the sense that these are actual people in a real situation, but there are also funny moments to help break up the complex storyline. This movie is similar in one way to Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous movie (THE MASTER,) which was thematically dense. Upon further viewings, the viewer could get a better sense and see deeper story threads that weren’t visible the first time through. To the average movie viewer, I’m not sure if they’d enjoy this film. They might find it too boring or too complex to wrap their heads around it. But for the movie lovers/fans of Paul Thomas Anderson, it’s a definite must. This filmmaker has changed and honed his craft, and in the process, he's created some very complex movies. He makes use of good costumes, locations, characters, and actors, and you could argue the movie looks like it was a documentary of that area. Overall, I’d have to say this movie wasn’t so fantastic that I’d recommend someone to see this in theaters. I did enjoy seeing it up on the big screen, but it’s a movie that could wait for home, and that’s mainly for how dense it is and the need for further viewings to get the most out of it. WILD The movie WILD is based on a memoir by Cheryl Strayed, and it stars Reese Witherspoon as Strayed, herself. The movie is slightly similar to the other book adaptation, EAT, PRAY, LOVE, in which a privileged white woman goes on a journey of self-discovery, but WILD is not really about a privileged white woman. No, Cheryl, as played by Witherspoon, is a woman who grows up with an abusive father, runs away with her mother and brother, and they struggle to afford to live. As the story progresses Cheryl deals with the sudden loss of her mentor and mother and the responsibilities of growing up and not having her mother around for advice. The movie intercuts her hiking through the wilderness with her memories reflecting on her past mistakes and choices in life. Like the song, Cheryl’s goal is to walk 1000 miles to get beyond her troubles. Her hike goes through the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert in California all the way up to Seattle, Washington. Her journey is a painful one, physically and emotionally, because she uses this experience to reflect and use that energy to put all those memories behind her. It's a solid performance by Witherspoon. I haven’t seen her do something this realistic in a long time, and she does deliver, but I think the real performance is from Laura Dern as her mother, who steals the film. Dern’s performance outshines Witherspoon’s for even the small moments that she's onscreen. All the subtleties of growing up and her constant love for her children are conveyed, and made me care for the loss of her mother. The movie can be quite inspirational. After watching the trek, it made me want to do hiking of my own and explore our fine country trails. But for a story about a person going into the wild to hike, there's actually not too much of it. When we do see magnificent beauty shots of the environment, it cuts away too quickly before we can take it in. That might be the intention of the director - beautiful things may not last and if you blink, it’ll be gone before you know it, which is a theme with Cheryl and her mother. Overall I would recommend people see this movie on the large screen if you want to see beautiful landscapes and solid performances, but I think for the general movie audience, they could wait until home to see it. It was a solid movie.
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