I got my best score in ages guessing 19 out of 24 right of the Academy Awards last night. Was a fun broadcast - Conan killed, and I loved the loose vibe of the whole affair, but damn, why didn't I got with my gut that the Best Picture was going to be the actual best movie of the year: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER?
I went with my inner rumblings last year with ANORA so I don't know why I wimped out and went with the media sway 'bout a SINNERS sweep. Sigh. For the record, I love SINNERS and am blaring the soundtrack right now, but ONE BATTLE is something other than else and PTA is one of the best filmmakers ever so I'm glad to be wrong.
Anyway, these are the five Oscar predictions I got wrong:
BEST PICTURE: My pick: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER/What won: SINNERS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: I guessed Benicio del Toro (maybe because I had a few small beers) for ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, but the Oscar went to: Sean Penn
I think my biggest takeaway here is that in all the years I've been making these there predicts, I've often counted out those that have won Oscars before. I didn't predict Adrien Brody last year, I discounted Anthony Hopkins a few years ago too - I had the foul idea that these folks wouldn't get the gold multiple times. Next time, I'll rethink this.
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM: My pick: BUTTERFLY/What won: THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER BEST CASTING: My pick: SINNERS, Francine Maisler/ What won: Cassandra Kulukundis for ONE BATTLE.
I kinda had the dumb idea that this award was made to honor such ensembles as SINNERS, but damn, Ms. Kulukundis, did really nail it on ONE BATTLE so I will shut up now.
That's it - here's hoping 2026 will have a roster of movies that compares, because this last year is so far my favorite of the 2020s.
Yep, it's that time of year again - the 98th Academy Awards ceremony will go down Sunday evening at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, and here I am again with my predictions, which I've been doing since the late 2000s. So it seems a dead heat between SINNERS and ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, and I could be wrong (and often am) but I'm sensing a SINNERS sweep, even though I prefer Paul Thomas Anderson's work there.
That's the tricky part about making these predictions - trying not to pick the ones you want to win, and I've had good scores (my best score was 22 out of 24) with that in mind, but this year seems set to have some upsets. This year was a weird but really good one for film so the only thing I actually feel sure about is that Conan O'Brien as host will be funny AF.
So here goes my predicts:
BEST PICTURE: SINNERS
BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Yeah, I think SINNERS will win Best Picture, but PTA will finally get his Director due. Like I said, I want ONE BATTLE to get the gold, but this is what I'm feeling right now.
BEST ACTOR: Michael B. Jordan (SINNERS)
It's just too much fun to not give Timothy Chamalet this award (I so wanted him to win for his Dylan last year, but not pulling for his this time - MARTY SUPREME was decent, but didn't really resonate with me). Jordan's confident performance (performances?) as twin brothers Smoke and Stack I'm betting will get the gold.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Benicio del Toro, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
BEST ACTRESS: Jessie Buckley, HAMNET
Her anti-cat comments aside, no other actress moved me more than Buckley in HAMNET.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Madigan, WEAPONS
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM: BUTTERFLY
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: FRANKENSTEIIN
BEST DOCUMENTARY: MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
BEST FILM EDITING: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM: SENTIMENTAL VALUE, Norway
BEST CASTING: SINNERS, Francine Maisler
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: FRANKENSTEIN, Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: SINNERS, Ludwig Goransson
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Golden” from KPOP DEMON HUNTERS, music and lyric by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seon and Teddy Park
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: FRANKENSTEIN
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA
BEST SOUND: F1
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, written by Paul Thomas Anderson
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:Ryan Coogler, SINNERS
Like I say every year - tune in Monday to see how many I got wrong.
For most of the last 12 months, I thought of 2025 as a very weird year for film. There were a lot of high-profile flops including one what’s being considered a front runner for the Best Picture Oscar, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, but also movies like the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and TRON sequels, and the SNOW WHITE and THE RUNNING MAN remakes, which all performed poorly while oddly flicks that looked like they might be soulless, cash-grabbing reboots like SUPERMAN, and THE NAKED GUN turned out to be decent crowd-pleasers.
But when it came to the last few months while catching up with many of the year’s releases, which were way less mainstream than those mentioned above, I started thinking of 2025 as a very good, and challenging year for film. There were great political thrillers, moving dramas whether personal or historical (or both), and three films that made my list that had characters named Agnes.
While there are still a number of films I haven’t seen (there always are; you can’t see everything), it’s time to post my personal Top 10 of the year, six of which are Best Picture nominees. So here goes the countdown:
Nominated for the Best International Film Oscar, this South Korean black comedy, which I've seen some online commentator liken to a mash-up of PARASITE and A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM is as compelling as it is wickedly amusing from start to finish.
Eva Victor’s impressive directorial debut, which she wrote and stars in, delivers a darkly quirky take on trauma. Victor as a New England graduate student named Agnes, who is sexually assaulted by a professor, puts in a genuine, lived-in performance, and her scenes with her best friend Lydie (an also appealing Naomi Ackie) have an affecting warmth. It’s a shame Academy voters didn’t give SORRY, BABY some love.
Made by an filmmaker who’s been imprisoned for creating what the Iranian government considered “propaganda against the regime,” this edgy thriller about a group of former political prisoners, who are caught up in the dilemma of thinking they’ve caught their torturer, but aren’t completely certain. Secretly shot in Iran, Jafar Panahi’s weighty materiual here is definitely worthy of both its Best International Film Oscar nom, as well as for Best Screenplay.
Receiving a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, Ryan Cooglar’s supernatural thriller SINNERS made for a better, more thoughtful, though equally twisted, take on the FROM DUSK TO DAWN scenario mixed with the CROSSROADS deal with the devil to great impact. As it was a big office hit with great critical acclaim, it’s due to take home quite a bit of gold on March 15. Michael B. Jordan has some stiff competition (DiCaprio, Chalamet) in the Best Acting category, but for his killer double turn as the Smokestack Twins, he could well pull off an upset.
This thoroughly engaging political thriller - yes, another political thriller - got four Academy Award noms last week, for both Best Picture, and Best International Feature Film then Best Actor for Wagner Moura, and in the new category of Best Casting. Set in 1977 during the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, the film features Moura as a research scientist on the run from hitman as he attempts to flee the country with his son, and it grips from the get-go.
The absolute antithesis of John Madden’s 1998 historical rom com SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (which won seven Oscars!), this emotionally-driven adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name is a haunting experience, especially in its heart-wrenching last third. Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star as William and Agnes Shakespeare, with the film focusing on the birth of their children, and subsequent death of their son Hamnet at age 11. The channeling of this tragedy into art, as seen through Agnes’ reaction is stirringly transcendent, and I believe Buckley should be handed the Best Actress statue for her performance. HAMNET got eight Oscar noms (including Best Picture) so here's hoping that happens.
This may seem like a cheat, but I truly equally enjoyed Richard Linklater's two period piece offerings this last year, and am especially glad that Ethan Hawke got nominated for his terrific turn as famed lyricist/songwriter Lorenz Hart though I doubt he'll win. The Broadway set BLUE MOON concerns Hart on the opening night of his former writing partner Richard Rodgers’ musical Oklahoma! in 1943, while NOUVELLE VAGUE is about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’sFrench New Wave classic BREATHLESS in 1959. Both films are loving, and ultra charming tributes to innovative artists, and their eras, and both should not be missed.
Joachim Trier’s touching drama about an acclaimed filmmaker portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård hoping to reconnect with his daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve), and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) via a new film project that he wants Nora to star in. Elle Fanning, who got one of the film’s nine nominations, appears as an American actress who takes on the role when Nora refuses. Like HAMNET it explores handling tragic loss through artistic expression, but in a vastly different manner. Trier's work has artsy elements but handles them unpretentiously, and with an absorbing elegance.
This is absolutely the best film I’ve ever seen about grief, which, I have to admit, I really didn’t understand until losing my father last April. In Clint Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, Joel Edgerton plays Idaho logger and railroad worker Robert Grainier, who loses his wife (Felicity Jones), and child in a forest fire and has to navigate through a lonely existence. Evocatively ghosty, with unforgettable vivid imagery, TRAIN DREAMS definitely got to me, and here's hoping more folks seek it out on Netflix.
While it underperformed at the box office, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1oth feature is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2025, and I’m among the many who have praised it as I voted for it for Best Picture in the year-end poll for the North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA). Leonardo DiCaprio as a burned-out ex revolutionary heads the strong cast including Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and a crusty AF Sean Penn as the scary Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in this twisted chaotic and comic action thriller that finds Anderson at the top of his game. With 13 noms, it's second in nominations to SINNERS, but I’m pulling for it to take home the big ones. With nearly a dozen noms but no wins, it really feels with this extraordinary piece of work like it’s finally PTA’s time.
Now, I’ll leave you with this hilarious commercial parody, featuring host Teyana Taylor, from last weekend's Saturday Night Live for a line of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER action figures new from Mattel:
On Twitter last weekend, many folks in my feed were posting their responses to the above tweet. Film-minded folks were recalling the first films by the most notable movie makers, and it was fun to see how the titles would often reveal the age range of the participants.
For posterity, I’m sharing my answers in my tweet here with some notes below:
Some notes: The first two films I saw at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Chapel Hill. I saw many crucial movie in my youth at the Carolina, which closed in the summer of 2005 (MARCH OF THE PENGUINS was the last film shown there). RUSHMORE I saw at another long closed venue, the Janus Theater in Greensboro; with BOOGIE NIGHTS and THE GAME at a few unmemorable multiplexes * also in Greensboro. Finally, DO THE RIGHT THING I saw twice in the summer of 1989 – first at the Ram Theater in Chapel Hill, and secondly at the Center Theatre 4 in Durham – both of which have also shut down long ago.
*One of these is still operating as the AMC Classic in Greensboro – the only theater that still exists of all the ones I’ve mentioned.
At some point during the early days of the pandemic, I started a series on Facebook entitled “Actors you recognize, but don’t know their names.” The series, which I moved to this space, paid tribute to such wonderful performers as Lynne Thigpen, Paul Dooley, Mary Kay Place, and Gary Cole (click on their names for their entries), highlighted their credits, and, obviously, aimed to help film fans put names to the familiar faces they’ve seen on screens many times.
One actor I had always meant to get to was somebody who could be considered the King of the actors you’ve seen, but can’t name: Philip Baker Hall, who passed away on June 12 at age 90.
Many obits called attention to what’s possibly Hall’s best known role: Lieutenant Bookman, on the wildly popular sitcom, Seinfeld (“The Library” S3E5 10/16/91). Watch a montage of Hall’s hilarious scenes from the episode here:
Hall really crushing it as the stern, Dragnet-style authority figure led to him being cast in a lot of movies and TV shows after its broadcast. But Hall hadn’t been doing too shabby in the years leading up to it as he had worked steadily since his first film part in COWARDS (alternate title: LOVE IN ’72) in 1970, and his first television role in the TV movie, THE LAST SURVIVORS in 1975.
Except for a part playing a doctor in Michael Crichton’s COMA (1978), on the big screen, Hall toiled in some pretty obscure stuff (THROW OUT THE ANCHOR, anyone?), but for his seventh feature, Hall scored a major role, President Richard M. Nixon, for Robert Altman’s SECRET HONOR (1984). A sweaty, obsessed, and beyond blustery Hall is the only actor in the one-man show that is Altman’s breakdown of the disgraced former Commander-in-Chief, and it’s a staggering piece of work.
From Roger Ebert’s review of SECRET HONOR: “Nixon is portrayed by Philip Baker Hall, an actor previously unknown to me, with such savage intensity, such passion, such venom, such scandal, that we cannot turn away. Hall looks a little like the real Nixon; he could be a cousin, and he sounds a little like him. That's close enough. This is not an impersonation, it’s a performance.”
Since that should’ve been a breakthrough part, Hall steadily worked in film, putting in a small roles in such notable fare as NOTHING IN COMMON, SAY ANYTHING, GHOSTBUSTERS 2, and AN INNOCENT MAN, while regularly popping up in programs such as Benson, Miami Vice, Family Ties, Falcon Crest, Matlock, Murder She Wrote, and L.A. Law.
But after booking Bookman on Seinfeld (he also reprised Lt. Bookman on the Seinfeld finale in 1998), his TV career exploded, and in the years that followed he appeared on everything from Cheers to 3rd Rock from the Sun to Millennium to Chicago Hope to Monk to The West Wing to Curb Your Enthusiasm to Big Love to Children’s Hospital to Psych to Modern Family to The Newsroom to Bojack Horseman to Boston Legal to Modern Family - to name over a dozen.
Hall’s film career was equally prolific post Seinfeld From the mid ‘90s on he was in a great many films including THE ROCK, AIR FORCE ONE, SOUR GRAPES, THE TRUMAN SHOW, RUSH HOUR (was also in the sequels), ENEMY OF THE STATE, THE INSIDER, CRADLE WILL ROCK, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, ZODIAC (was also in THE ZODIAC), ARGO, and his last film, the Shirley MacLaine vehicle, THE LAST WORD (2017).
But the grand thespian’s finest work has to be in the three films that he did with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson: HARD EIGHT (1996), BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997), and MAGNOLIA (1999). I just rewatched HARD EIGHT, which was Anderson’s directorial debut, as it had been a long time since I’d seen it. I’m glad I did, because I was reminded at what a confidently constructed, and stylishly gritty work it is, and how masterful Hall was as its protagonist, Sydney, who the premise posits as a gambling mentor to the film’s other lead, John C. Reilly as lovable schlub, John Finnegan.
It’s intoxicating, and well worth a streaming rental (I watched it on Amazon Prime) to see Hall suavely glide through the neon-lit casinos of Reno, Vegas, and Atlantic City with his cranky sexy cool swagger.
The film’s original title was SYDNEY, a name inspired by Hall’s character in MIDNIGHT RUN, but he’s not supposed to be the same character as it’s “Sidney” in the previous movie. Although the name isn't mentioned, the movie is an expansion of a short film by Anderson, that features Hall, CIGARETTES AND COFFEE (not to be confused with Jim Jarmusch's 2003 anthology film COFFEE AND CIGARETTES), which you can watch on YouTube.
I was also reminded that in one scene, in which Sydney is being hassled by Samuel L. Jackson as a scheming casino security guard. Jackson says, “I know all those guys you know – Floyd Gondoli, Jimmy Gator, Mumbles O’Malley.”
This foreshadows that Hall would play characters by those names in Anderson’s next two films:
Porn distributor mogul, Floyd Gondoli, in BOOGIE NIGHTS:
Game show host, Jimmy Gator, in MAGNOLIA:
Now sadly, a movie featuring Hall’s PTA trilogy completer, Mumbles O’Malley, will never materialize.
As usual this year, we’ve got a season full of prestige films, but, for obvious reasons, fewer folks will be going to the theaters to see them. However, I’m not going to let that stop me as this is the first in a series of posts that will feature reviews of a roster of current movies. These critiques are shorter than the ones I regularly post in this forum, but some are not as this is called Film Babble Blog for a reason. So let’s start with the latest from one of my favorite filmmakers, Paul Thomas Anderson:
Paul Thomas Anderson’s ninth film is his most charming effort since PUNCH DRUNK LOVE. It’s also a brighter, less cynical, and more colorful work than Anderson’s most recent output that finds its filmmaker in a appealingly sentimental mode. Harking back to a sun-drenched 1973, the film lays out the relationship between an aging child actor (the chubby, but extremely confident Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman), and a snarky photographer’s assistant (Alana Haim, who I bet we’ll see a lot more of). Cooper’s Gary Valentine (great name) is 15, while Haim’s Alana Kane is 25, but that doesn’t deter the sparks in their interactions, even if both of them date others at times.
The most Wes Anderson-ish bit involves Bradley Cooper as an unhinged, and potentially violent producer/former hairdresser Jon Peters, who at the time was Barbara Streisand boyfriend. This sequence feels like it would fit right into BOOGIE NIGHTS. Another fun highlight posits Sean Penn as actor Jack Holden (read: William Holden), who jumps a motorcycle over a fire pit at the Van Nuys Golf Course. Although it's a glorified cameo, it’s Penn’s best, and most conscious free acting in ages. Filled with era representing rock tunes (how could it not be?), LICORICE PIZZA is a delight of a witty, and romantic period piece. For some folks, it may be too slow, and lengthy, but those are a few things I actually think the film has going for it as one can luxuriate in experience.
When it comes to the rich famous people in turmoil genre, one can understandably believe that acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott took a look back at his 2017 drama, ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, and thought ‘I want to make another one of these.’ So he set his sights on the Gucci empire, a global sensation that manufactured expensive handbags among other extravagant accessories. At the heart of this rise-and-fall film is a love story between Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), and Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), which begins with a meet cute at a lavish costume party. Before long, the couple marries despite the objection of Maurizo’s father (Jeremy Irons). On the other side of the Gucci dynasty is Maurizo’s uncle, Aldo (Al Pacino), and his ne’er-do-well son Paolo (a completely unrecognizable Jared Leto).
Affairs, forgeries, and eventually murder make up this seemingly elegant yet shameful tale that on the surface is as convincing as the imitation Gucci merchandise that sends Patrizi into a tizzy, but underneath is yet another formulaic morality myth. Working from a palets of off-white imagery, Scott has fashioned an elegantly watchable work, but I doubt it will hold up as very memorable in the years ahead. But the reason to see it now is undoubtedly its top notch cast. The classy yet tabloid prone Lady Gaga yet again proves herself to be an spot-on actress; Driver excels as the aloof, and nonchalant tycoon of legend; Pacino puts in one of his most invested performances in ages, and Leto, who I really didn’t know was playing Paolo until the end credits, shines through his prosthetics convincingly; and Salma Hayek has a juicy role as a jaded psychic. This ensemble keeps HOUSE OF GUCCI from being just opulent eye candy, but just barely.
Early on in this documentary, Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg describes himself as “a Maltese American, left-handed Episcopalian, gay war veteran, mayor millennial.” But of these traits, predictably the one that keeps coming up is Buttigieg’s homosexuality. We see him field variations of questions like “As the first openly homosexual presidential candidate, do you think that’s a plus or a minus towards your efforts to the Oval Office?” Our young wannabe nominee stresses how his orientation doesn’t affect his qualifications for the presidency, but he stumbles, albeit eloquently on matters of race. This is why he has lunch with Reverend Al Sharpton at one point. Buttigieg comes across as a likably sincere, calm (as more than one possible supporter notes), and driven and aspiring Commander in Chief. However, despite some amusing, and inspirational moments, this film is an all too typical portrait of an idealistic politician. Its good intentions can’t obscure that it’s a glorified infomercial that doesn’t have much impact after the fact.
You can’t get more of a high-faluting prestige picture than Paul Thomas Anderson’s eighth film, PHANTOM THREAD. Sure, THE POST comes close as it had a roster of Oscar winners both in front and behind the camera, but PHANTOM THREAD boasts what’s billed as “the final performance of Daniel Day-Lewis.”
Earlier this week, Day-Lewis earned his sixth Academy Award nomination (he’s won three times) for Best Lead Actor, while the film got nods for Anderson for Best Director (his second for direction; he’s also been nominated for Screenplay four times, but hasn’t won for either category), Lesley Manville for Best Supporting Actress for, Jonny Greenwood for Score, Mark Bridges for Costume Design, and, the big one, Best Picture.
By contrast THE POST only got two noms, but, despite one being Best Picture, and the other being Meryl Streep for Best Lead Actress, they seem pretty obligatory.
But enough about how much this movie out-prestiges that movie, let’s get to what it’s about. PHANTOM THREAD is a pristine period piece set in high society London in the ‘50s about the romance, or lack thereof, between Day-Lewis as a control freak dressmaker named Reynolds Woodcock, and a much younger woman, a waitress named Alma Elson played by Vicky Krieps.
Reynolds and Alma spend their somewhat timid courtship with him taking her measurements for elaborate dresses, under the watchful eye of his sister Cyril (Manville).
Alma nervously tries to please Reynolds, but she has to walk on eggshells around his creative process. In one instance, she brings him tea when he’s working, and she gets scolded. Alma quickly leaves, as Reynold angrily admonishes, “Yes, you can take the tea out but the interruption is staying right here with me!”
So the relationship between Day-Lewis’ Reynolds and Krieps’ Alma is a prickly one – I mean, he gets mad if she butters her toast too loud at breakfast – and it goes in a disturbing direction when Alma starts to mix poisonous mushrooms into his food.
Baring thematic similarities to such subtle old timey dark thriller romances like George Cukor’s REBECCA, and Alfred Hitchcock’s REBECCA and MARNIE, PHANTOM THREAD is a spare, elegant and somewhat odd experience. I admired it, but didn’t feel much of an emotional connection to it. The acting by Day-Lewis is impeccable, as is Kriep’s, who should’ve been nominated as she holds her own with the acting legend lead, but this look into these sad peoples’ lives fell short of being illuminating for me.
Perhaps I haven’t fully processed it yet. Anderson is one of my favorite filmmakers, and I know there are layers to his work that can take a bit to seep in like in his first collaboration with Day-Lewis, the stellar THERE WILL BE BLOOD (it took a second viewing of that to fully appreciate it), and his last film, INHERENT VICE (the same), so I’d be up for seeing it again.
One takeaway I can relay is that PHANTOM THREAD is a very white movie. And that’s not because it doesn’t have a black character in it (though that is a factor). It’s bathed in hazy white lighting, has many white dresses on display, there are walls of bricks painted white, and many big white spaces dominate the screen. Anderson, who did his own cinematography, has fashioned a beautiful looking picture immaculate frame by immaculate frame - a very white, clean, and, yes, very prestige-y picture.
As for its Oscar chances, I’m not thinking Day-Lewis is going to win a fourth Oscar here (I think it’s Gary Oldman’s year), but if he does I won’t protest because his portrayal is definitely up there with the other roles he's won Oscars for (again, three!).
Otherwise, I doubt this will get the big one – Best Picture, and, right now, I’m not feeling Best Director, nor Best Supporting Actress (though Manville puts in a sharp performance). The piano-driven score, by frequent Anderson collaborator, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, has a better chance, but when it comes to Best Costume Design, I’m betting Mark Bridges will be hard to beat.
In a recent interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson claimed he wasn’t a stoner, that he really didn’t get stoned.
Well, INHERENT VICE, Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 comic-noir novel of the same name, coulda fooled me.
It’s such a rambling, sprawling, shaggy dog story with a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous as The Dude would say, all filtered through hazy clouds of pot smoke that it feels like it could’ve only been made by a filmmaker who’s stoned out of his mind.
Of course, my mention of The Dude doesn’t come from out of the blue. The film’s depiction of a countercultural underdog unraveling connections throughout the seedy underworld of Los Angeles heavily recalls the Coen brothers’ THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998), as well as Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE (1973).
Pynchon’s novel seemed to have those references embedded in it as well, and Anderson puts forth a largely faithful take on the original source material, right down to the exact wording of large chunks of the book’s dialogue.
In his second film for Anderson following 2012’s THE MASTER, Joaquin Phoenix plays pothead protagonist Larry “Doc” Sportello, a long-haired, unkempt sideburns-sporting private investigator living in Gordita Beach, California in 1970. Doc’s ex-girlfriend Shasta (the pretty and appropriately flighty Katherine Waterson) shows up after an absence of over a year, and asks him for his help concerning her current boyfriend, a real estate mogul named Mickey Wolfman (Eric Roberts).
Mickey’s wife (Serena Scott Thomas) and her lover, are working on what Shasta calls “a creepy little scheme” to have her rich husband committed to a mental institution so that they can make off with his fortune.
From there, Phoenix’s Doc gets hired by The Wire’s Michael Kenneth Williams as a member of the “Black Guerilla Family” gang to find a white supremacist, named Glenn Charlock (Christopher Allen Nelson), who happens to be one of Mickey’s bodyguards.
After following a lead that ends up with our extremely high hero getting knocked unconscious at a Massage parlor named Chick Planet, Doc is questioned by his long-time cop nemesis, Christian “Bigfoot” Bjornsen (Josh Brolin, going big and succeeding), a thick-necked, flat-topped, hippie-hating hardass member of the LAPD.
Luckily, Benicio Del Toro as slick marine lawyer Sauncho Smilax swoops in to get Doc released, but, unluckily, Shasta and Mickey have completely disappeared into thin air.
As if things weren’t complicated enough, Doc takes on another case that’s possibly related, involving the death of surf-rock saxophonist Coy Harlingen (a whispering Owen Wilson) as his widow Hope (Jena Malone) thinks he’s still alive.
From there, Doc visits with his special lady friend, Deputy D.A. Penny Kimball, played by Phoenix’s WALK THE LINE co-star Reese Witherspoon, gets interrogated by FBI agents (Parenthood’s Sam Jaeger and Veep’s Timothy Simons), and, most amusingly, does cocaine with Martin Short as an coked-up dentist. Doc’s trail keeps leading to some sinister entity called “Golden Fang,” which is either a mysterious ship for running drugs, an Indo-Chinese heroin cartel, and/or a syndicate of dentists. I’m still not sure which.
Making her film debut, indie singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom serve as the film’s onscreen narrator Sortilège, a minor character in the book but here the custodian to descriptions of Doc’s inner thoughts, somewhat surreally I might add.
Which means that one minute, Doc is driving with Sortilège riding shotgun telling us about “the long, sad history of LA land use,” and the next minute she’s gone. The freshness of Newsom's delivery of Pynchon's prose enhances the dry sections of the film considerably.
The fading of the sunny idealistic ‘60s into the scary, smacked out ‘70s is conveyed strikingly through Robert Elswit’s always stunning cinematography (Elswit has shot 6 of Anderson’s 7 movies), which gives both dark, dank interiors and sun-bleached exteriors a great burnt-out look, and the score by Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood mixed with well chosen songs by Neil Young, Can, Lex Baxter, and the Chuck Jackson Motown classic “Any Day Now,” perfectly evokes the era as well.
Unfortunately INHERENT VICE is no masterpiece. It’s frustratingly low energy at times with scenes that linger on and on. Many critics are calling it “incoherent vice” (there’s a joke I bet will be made at the Oscars) for understandable reasons, but while I sometimes stared at the screen and thought that it was a meandering mess, I was more often struck by the brilliance of many of its moments.
I’ve seen it twice now, and I enjoyed and “got it” a lot more the second time. Phoenix's performance, which initially bothered me as being half-assed, seemed more nuanced (I could see that he was really using his full ass), and I felt more of a poetry to its slow pace than before.
Being the first ever adaptation of a Pynchon novel – books that many have said are unfilmable - is no small feat, and I can’t imagine anybody doing a better job with this particular material than Anderson.
Folks who aren’t Anderson or Pynchon fans going in aren’t likely to be won over, especially at its long-ass length of 2 and a half hours, but those who are hip to its vibe and can get into a groove with its stoned tone are likely to think it’s a gas, man. Sorry, to lay that outdated lingo on you, but I bet deep down you dig it.
