Paul Thomas Anderson’s enigmatic, free-flowing stoner noir “Inherent Vice” has many fans around these parts, but the Thomas Pynchon adaptation is one of the director’s most polarizing efforts, as highlighted by the fifth and final entry in “The Director Series”’ look at the filmmaker.
In this latest video essay, the primary focus is on ‘Vice,’ which — despite earning two Oscar nominations in 2015 — was met with more apathy than usual for an Anderson joint from both critics and audiences (it earned a paltry $14.7 million worldwide). But this video essay helps unpack what’s going on under the surface in the film’s complicated plot, including the ideological tug-of-war between “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) and “Bigfoot” Bjornsen (Josh Brolin), the meaning of the marina term of “inherent vice” in the story’s greater context, and a suggestion to watch Anderson’s films in the order of their time periods (sans “Hard Eight”) for an examination of the changes to California life throughout the decades.
The final third of the essay dives into the two music videos Anderson shot for Joanna Newsom (“Sapokanikan” and “Divers”), as well as his Jonny Greenwood documentary “Junun,” and how both still mange to fit Anderson’s voice as an auteur. You can check out the video above and, if you’re so inclined, re-watch “Inherent Vice” afterwards.