Inherent Vice (New Paul Thomas Anderson)

[Wet Blanket]

Are there any fan edits of Magnolia out there that cut away about a quarter of the film? There's such a great movie in there if it wasn't so utterly bloated and self indulgent. I've read that PTA himself thinks its overly long. I've often wondered if he'd ever do a directors cut of it that trimmed it up a bit and made it a bit shorter.

I thought Magnolia was ace and would happily watch a 6-hour cut of it.

This on the other hand has 'cult-film' written all over it. I predict it will do no business at the cinema but become a fan fave that one day runs as a double bill at the Prince Charles cinema with the Big Lebowski.

[phantom_power]

It does have a real Lebowski/Long Goodbye vibe to it, which is fine by me as I love those two films. I have gone from being mildly intrigued to rather excited after that trailer.

I also think Magnolia is great in all its bloated glory and would watch a longer cut if it were available

[Paisley]

I'd put Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon, and Joanna Newsom in a top ten of living artists (working in any field) so the fact that they're all converging in this one movie - however minor their contribution turns out to be - feels like a genuine event. Like when De Niro and Pacino finally came face to face in Heat. Or that time Rip Torn attacked Norman Mailer with a hammer. (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6AzmhorISf4)

From what I've read, PTA seems to be a genuine fan of Pynchon (an early draft of The Master had some scenes with Freddie hunting alligators in the New York sewers that was lifted directly from V[nb]I loved this; still my favourite novel of his from those that I've read. I've been reading around Gravity's Rainbow for years now; taking in V, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice. But I think I'm ready for it now. Mason & Dixon too. Vineland definitely the worst.[/nb]), and though Inherent Vice may be lesser Pynchon, it's definitely the one that lends itself best to adaptation. I really hope PTA attempts to bring to life some of the made up songs that Pynchon always drops in his books. I always thought The Fiery Furnaces would have been great for this.[nb]Pitchfork agreed with me on this point: As one half of proggy brother-sister duo the Fiery Furnaces, the songs Eleanor Friedberger used to sing sounded like pop music as imagined by Thomas Pynchon, or maybe Carmen Sandiego: tirelessly globe-trotting, breathlessly complex, and just a little cartoony. [/nb]

[Sam]

Trailer looks great. Has a nice seedy vibe, remiscent of Boogie Nights.

I think PTA is a really interesting director. He aims really high and it's a treat to see someone take the craft so seriously and produce with it very entertaining films.

I also love another pairing with Joaquin Phoenix, who has real intensity and charisma in every role.

Can't wait to see this in the cinema.

[newbridge]

I'm not a big fan of the trailer, even though I've been looking forward to this. To me it's veering worringly toward American Hustle (schlock) as opposed to Big Lebowski (genius). 

And what's with the wooden acting in the trailer? It felt like a Wes Anderson movie, but that approach doesn't work unless you're Wes Anderson making a Wes Anderson movie.

[Paisley]

Early responses to last night's premiere suggest that this is PTA's least accessible film yet. And that as a mystery it's largely incomprehensible. Sounds good.

It also apparently features a new Radiohead song called Spooks.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Early responses to last night's premiere suggest that this is PTA's least accessible film yet. And that as a mystery it's largely incomprehensible. Sounds good.

It also apparently features a new Radiohead song called Spooks.

Spooks has been knocking about since at least 2006-ish.

[Garam]

press conference video and a great hyping review from a film forum I attend. Reviews very non-spoilerish, haven´t seen the video yet so can´t speak for that though. Like the review says though, it´s practically impossible to Spoiler something Pynchon-related.

First thing I want to say is that I think this movie is virtually un-spoilerable.

If someone put a gun to my head and asked me to give a play-by-play of IV's plot I'd be a dead man. I'll need to watch it at least seven more times with subtitles before I'll have the vaguest idea what was going on (mod was right to see this 3 times in one day). Even beyond the plot the movie is difficult to describe. The word "beguiling" has been used and is actually pretty apt. It's hard to put your finger on, but that's maybe the point, because Doc has a hard time putting his finger on anything beyond his lost love for the duration of Inherent Vice's running time. The beauty is that it doesn't even matter if you're able to follow the story — what was most compelling to me was the always unexpected, dissonant ways the characters Doc comes across behaved within their vignettes. A scene is moving "this way" and a character is moving "that way" instead. Their life, their full, fleshed out life, memory, experience, all that, is what you're watching, a specific slice of it shown just because it happens to coincide with the plot's need to show a character at that moment, but their helping to unravel the mystery doesn't really seem to matter. We get to see them, instead. This has to have the best acting in any PT movie, often Cassavetes level, an unprecedented immediacy in comparison to his previous films, and the detective story seems more an excuse for observation, a way to get Doc mobile running around Los Angeles and into the presence of all these insane characters to fix his eyes on what's-going-on-with-them as humans regardless of their part within the crime thread.

The Master was beautiful but visually this is another horse entirely, a step beyond. It LOOKS like a movie straight up made in the 70s even moreso than Boogie Nights, and if I was unfamiliar with all names involved and happened to see it I'd probably think it actually was. The lighting, the textures, the furniture...how did he do that? It boggles my mind. I wasn't alive 40 years ago, but even if it isn't period accurate it definitely doesn't look "like now", and it doesn't look like a pastiche. I need to rewatch the trailer but I feel like it was color timed to appear more like a normal movie, the picture I saw up on that screen felt such a departure from it. Maybe the trailer difference was my imagination. Whatever.

Inherent Vice starts off like something in the tonal vein of Love Streams and morphs, with the momentum of a hawaiian slide guitar, into a mad, mindblowing labyrinth of cryptic doublespeak and double entendres. It's perverted as hell, thank god (Thank GOD), and DENSE, so many things going on and to pick up on repeat viewings. It's a slipstream of madcap antics and unbeatable melancholy. Who is who and why is why and how is what I couldn't tell you. I don't think I care that I couldn't tell you. The acting is SO GOOD though, that even when you're bewildered, when characters like Martin Short's Doctor Blatnoyd are speaking almost incoherently but Doc seems right there with them and to have some clue what's going on, you believe them so fully as people, their renderings feel so real, that it doesn't feel like the scene doesn't make sense, but that you're privy to an actual event that took place and just haven't cracked the code. I loved that. Even if I never make sense of it I could watch it again and again — an endless supply of deranged company to hang out with.

In some ways Inherent Vice feels like a fraternal twin of The Master, conveying similar skepticism about America's ideals, about its skeptics alternatives, and of any answers in general, and like The Master, at its core the movie is about a love that got away - love the only thing that will save you, and love as a drug that's worth taking because sobriety in this life without a point doesn't seem to be worth it. Love as a drug...a loved life worth living...sobriety as a life without love...drugs as a substitute for that lacking love...something or other...

Ironic that this is the film of PT's that has big studio backing behind it — WB is out of their minds. Yeah it has humor, but it's his least commercial movie by a mile, and I wonder what the fuck is going to happen come day one of its wide release when word of mouth spreads. The trailer is SO OFF — I don't even know what to relate the movie to as I've never seen anything else like it. Long Goodbye this Big Lebowski that — not even close. I'll say this - the movie makes you feel like PT is the only real filmmaker out there right now making anything new or pushing any boundaries to show you something you haven't seen before. You realize how rote everything else is in comparison, how many patterns most movies follow even in terms of "art film" style.


Going to have to edit this a bunch of times because my mind is still swirling and I have no idea how long it's going to take me to wrap my head around something concrete. I know my comments are vague but atm I don't know how to describe my feelings or really what I saw. The movie is so so original, and will rekindle your love of film and belief in its future possibilities even more than The Master, I think. IV goes into fever dream territory and never comes out.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9LMD_Fx87E&list=PLdLHQX1t7hV2aYeLfs4Zl-1AmP2yGUSeC

[Johnny Textface]

If Spooks is a recording, which I presume it is, then that's fair enough. Look at videotape. Roll on January.

I need to watch the master I think.

[newbridge]

This is preposterous:

I'll say this - the movie makes you feel like PT is the only real filmmaker out there right now making anything new or pushing any boundaries to show you something you haven't seen before. You realize how rote everything else is in comparison, how many patterns most movies follow even in terms of "art film" style.

But nonetheless a good teaser review. After hearing that the actual film bears little resemblance to the trailer, I'm back on board. Plus Martin Short is in it??

[phantom_power]

There have been lots of reviews now and they are very mixed, running the gamut from a bit rubbish, to moderate to awesome. So, none the wiser then

[Garam]

mixed reviews is exactly what you want. If it was unanimously positive i´d be a bit worried.

i guess i´m a fanboy. Only cause i haven´t been let down since i´ve been a fan. I feel like everytime this guy...sorry, this crew, makes a film it´s a step forward. I wasn´t around to see Scorsese, Cassavetes or Kubrick release their classics, but i have PTA. This is my equivalent of a Star Wars VII type deal basically.

[popcorn]

Fellow Radiohead nerds: apparently it's a new piano-based version of Spooks recorded by Jonny and two members of Supergrass. How odd.

[Paisley]

From Cigarettes & Red Vines:

The Film Stage did a round-up of all the songs that can be heard in Inherent Vice. While we don't yet have details on when the soundtrack album for the film will arrive, this is PTA's most pop-song-laden soundtrack since Boogie Nights, and could probably justify its own record alongside the album of Jonny Greenwood's score.
1. "Dreamin' On A Cloud" by The Tornadoes
2. "Rhythm of the Rain" by The Cascades
3. "Vitamin C" by CAN
4. "Soup" by CAN
5. "Simba" by Les Baxter
6. "Spooks" by Radiohead
7. "Burning Bridges" by Jack Scott
8. "The Throwaway Age" by Bob Irwin
9. "Gilligan's Island Theme" by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle
10. "Harvest" by Neil Young
11. "Here Comes the Ho-Dads" by The Markettts
12. "Electricity" by Cliff Adams
13. "Never My Love" by The Association
14. "Les Fleur" by Minnie Riperton
15. "Journey Through the Past" by Neil Young
16. "Sukiyaki" by KYU Sakamoto
17. "Adam-12 (Themes and Cues") by Frank Comstock
18. "(What A) Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke
19. "Amethyst" by Jonny Greenwood
20. "Any Day Now" by Chuck Jackson

PTA is one of those directors whose use of music is inseparable from the action[nb]Wasn't Magnolia written around those Aimee Mann songs?[/nb] and whose films benefit from being listened to as loudly as possible. The scores for Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood are especially effective, I think, always bubbling under and tugging at scenes before periodically exploding when you don't pay it enough attention. And The Master introduced me to Jo Stafford's No Other Love, for which I'll always be grateful. Inherent Vice is shaping up to be no different.

[kittens]

any word on a release date?

[Paisley]

January 30, according to Bing.

[Paisley]

Just in time for pancake day.

[Paisley]

There's a screening for this on Wednesday, Londoners.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ItztN-egY8A

And here's the tracklist for the official soundtrack release:


1. Shasta - Jonny Greenwood
2. Vitamin C - CAN
3. Meeting Crocker Fenway - Jonny Greenwood
4. Here Comes the Ho-Dads - The Marketts
5. Spooks - [unreleased Radiohead song]
6. Shasta Fay - Jonny Greenwood
7. Les Fleur - Minnie Riperton
8. The Chryskylodon Institute - Jonny Greenwood
9. Sukiyaki - KYU Sakamoto
10. Adrian Prussia - Jonny Greenwood
11. Journey Through the Past - Neil Young
12. Simba - Les Baxter
13. Under the Paving-Stones, the Beach! - Jonny Greenwood
14. The Golden Fang - Jonny Greenwood
15. Amethyst - Jonny Greenwood
16. Shasta Fay Hepworth - Jonny Greenwood
17. Any Day Now - Chuck Jackson

[Johnny Textface]

Well?

I'm currently attempting to read the book prior to the films release, but struggling to get a handle on it really - just seems hard to read to me - I like simple nighttime reading.

[Garam]

Anyone go to the London screenings? PTA turned up unannounced, apparently.

[Paisley]

Well?

I'm currently attempting to read the book prior to the films release, but struggling to get a handle on it really - just seems hard to read to me - I like simple nighttime reading.

Yeah, Pynchon's definitely not simple nighttime reading. The only advice I'd give is to not get too hung up on trying to understand everything, just try and enjoy the ride (an approach that the film sounds like its taken). There are websites dedicated to explaining (or at least exploring) his every line, but it's really not necessary to get that involved. I just think he writes some amazing sentences, of the type nobody else can write. It's no surprise to me that his contemporaries were ( and are) in such awe of him. At his peak (which Inherent Vice isn't) he was operating on a different level. Maybe try reading him in the morning whilst high on sugary cereals.

[Garam]

TOTAL FILM PTA INTERVIEW

HE MADE BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA AND THERE WILL BE BLOOD, HE'S HAILED AS ONE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST WORKING DIRECTORS, AND HIS NEW FILM INHERENT VICE IS ALREADY BEING TAGGED AS A MASTERPIECE. FINDS IT ALL RATHER SURREAL. "HOW DID I GET HERE?" HE SAYS. "HOW DO I GET ON THE SIDELINES AGAIN?"

October 4, New York. Paul Thomas Anderson's seventh movie as writer and director, Inherent Vice, is receiving its world premiere at the Starr Theater on Broadway and West 65th. Anderson and his cast – Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson, Jena Malone, Martin Short, Eric Roberts, Katherine Waterston and his wife, Maya Rudolph – take to the stage. The buzz is palpable, as are Anderson's nerves while delivering a brief intro. Filmmaker and players settle into their balcony seats. The lights dim. Two hours and 28 minutes later, they rise once more, and so too does the audience, its thunderous ovation eliciting flashing teeth and waving arms from on high. Later that night, or rather in the early hours of the next morning, Anderson and co are relaxed and relieved at the intimate after-party at Tavern On The Green, Central Park. All smiles and cigarettes, their mellow satisfaction matches the soft radiance emanating from bejewelled lanterns hanging in trees, candles on table tops. The air is crisp, the sky is starless. Music from the '70s, much of it featured in Anderson's 1997 breakthrough feature Boogie Nights, wafts through the enclosed garden space, and Rudolph shimmies towards her husband as The Bee Gees' 'Stayin' Alive' replaces The O'Jay's 'Love Train'. It is, indeed, a time to dance – tonight caps three long years of Anderson wrestling Thomas Pynchon's unfilmable novel to the screen. The next evening is cold and bright. Windows glint, the edges of skyscrapers are scalpel-sharp. Anderson is way up on the 17th floor of the Trump Hotel, ensconced in a non-smoking suite sucking on cigarettes. He's wearing a casual shirt and jeans, his chin coated in stubble, his hair mid-length and shaggy as befits the vibe of his new movie. Set in 1970, Inherent Vice is a stoner-noir, with Phoenix's buzzed and befuddled PI Larry 'Doc' Sportello put on a case by his free-spirited ex, Shasta (Waterston). What begins as a straightforward investigation into the disappearance of real-estate magnate Mickey Wolfmann (Roberts) slides down a kaleidoscopic rabbit hole inhabited by Nazi bikers, Black Power militants, psychics, a presumed-dead saxophone player (Owen Wilson) and a hippie-hating flat-top cop (Brolin), while somewhere, everywhere, lurks the Golden Fang – perhaps just the name of a schooner belonging to a blacklisted movie star, perhaps an Indochinese drugs syndicate, perhaps a cabal of tax-dodging, coke-snorting dentists. Probably all of the above and a whole lot more. As indecipherable as The Big Sleep ("In the middle of shooting, I thought 'Are the reviews going to say 'Incoherent Vice'?" grins Anderson) and as gripped with paranoia and anxiety as '70s noirs Chinatown, Night Moves and The Long Goodbye, Inherent Vice is also furiously funny – Anderson wasn't kidding when he name-checked Police Squad! and Top Secret! as visual inspirations. "I just found myself fucking beaming!" he, well, beams when Total Film remarks he looked genuinely overcome at the applause last night. It was a sweet reaction given you'd think he'd by now be immune to praise after the plaudits heaped upon Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood and The Master. "Every part of you goes, 'Do not let this make you feel good'. But I hadn't seen it with an audience before and I couldn't fucking help it!"

Inherent Vice takes a while to settle. It needs two or three viewings to get a handle on...
I don't aim for that, but I like hearing it, because I think the implication is that it feels good, that you want to see it again, so that's high praise. But it's weird... I was thinking about it last night. We were the centrepiece [of the New York Film Festival] and it was a weird feeling. Like, 'How did I get here? How do I get on the sidelines again?' [Laughs] It's thrilling that people have expectations but there's no way it can be what you thought it was. How many albums have you bought when you go, "This is fucking terrible". Then you listen to it three or four times and it's great.

Do those expectations ever weigh on you when you're making a movie?
Not setting out. But the night before last, that's when the reality sets in. I fucking couldn't go to sleep. Finishing a film and getting it ready is propelling you forward, and when you stop and realise you're in New York and you're showing the movie tomorrow, it comes crashing in: "Holy fuck!"

Pynchon's novel is so dense and rich. How did you even begin to adapt it?
I just sat down and wrote the book out in a script form. And I think the idea there was that I didn't have any other ideas. To look at it in a way that's familiar to me meant I could put it out on the floor and cut and paste. It was labour intensive work but good, because you get to know the thing. I just got a cookbook holder and put it up there and was like [mimes typing]. My back hurt and there was no inspiration going on, but as I was going along, I have to say there was stuff, instinctually, where I was thinking, 'Maybe this doesn't need to be there?' I was making edits in my mind.

Did you stay in touch with Thomas Pynchon throughout the adaptation process?
My throat hurts [laughs].

You obviously want to honour his privacy. But presumably you were keen to keep him in the loop and do right by his words?
You don't want to fuck with his shit if you don't have to. But I found myself numerous times in that bad place of being reverential, thinking 'I've got to protect it'. To best respect it is to sometimes dismantle it and tear it apart to make it a movie. You can write out dialogue exactly as it happens in the book, and then you hear everyone say it... You've got good actors and it should work, but it just doesn't sound good. It's a different thing. We've seen books turned into movies that try so hard to be literary. And they've failed because [the mediums] are different. Being respectful, but also having to wrestle with it and not be nice with it, was a delicate thing, for sure.

Did you go back and watch the classic film noirs before shooting?
I know that stuff so well and I watch it all the time. Truthfully, I probably was watching so much more of that stuff in a new way when I was doing The Master. Ironically, that was a film, to me, that linked so much more to that stuff – those movies were all these guys coming back from the war, and they're not fitting in with society, and there's always a girl that's fucking them over. That was the stuff I was thinking about for The Master. Ridiculously enough, I thought that was more like a film noir. When it came to this one, I knew that material so well, I was trying to stay away from it.

Given your love of Robert Altman, surely The Long Goodbye was a touchstone?
I had to forget that The Long Goodbye exists. I love that movie so much and know it so well, but don't try to do that. The truth was, there was so much to be wrestled with in the book, that was the preoccupation. Forget movies. But years ago, watching The Big Sleep again, it was, 'OK, plot don't really matter; it's just how to get your guy on the road.'

Doc makes Elliott Gould's shambolic Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye look positively switched on. What made you choose Joaquin Phoenix for the role?
There wasn't anything I can point to. It was more like, 'He's a great actor, and I loved working with him [on The Master]'. I remember thinking, 'I gotta get someone to play this great character', and I was rummaging through, thinking about who could do this. Robert Downey and I had talked about it for a little while, but that was kind of not serious. And I remember sitting in the editing room staring at Joaquin on the monitor: 'He's right in front of my face! This is my man!'

He really puts himself out there in this...
There's no director that works with Joaquin who doesn't want to work with Joaquin again. There's a long line of people who want to work with him, as they should. I can't say a bad word about him. I've heard people say, "I didn't think he could be funny". But he's so fucking funny in this. It's a good character: he's on the fucking case; he doesn't know what the case is, but he's fucking on it [laughs].

This is an ensemble film like Boogie Nights and Magnolia but the style is more in keeping with There Will Be Blood and The Master, very focused, very controlled. Would you have made it differently when you were younger?
Probably. For sure. Of course I would of.

It's different to the trailer in that...
Is the trailer misleading, do you think?

It makes the movie look more madcap than it is...
It's madcap [laughs].

But the trailer makes it look fast and frantic, a bit more ''40s screwball'.
Right. [Pause] I fucked up.

The trailer's great, but the film's a little different in its style and mood.
Well, it's a little bit more formal, but so much of that came from how the scenes are written in the book. You're in Doc's apartment. You're in this other location. Here's him driving from here to there. Those are the scenarios from the book. There wasn't a lot of room for camera pyrotechnics. There were great opportunities for long scenes with a lot of dialogue between two actors, where we can have one nice long shot, and that was nice to do. There's a scene I really like with Reese [Witherspoon] and Joaquin on a park bench, and it's just a nice, long, slow push. We'd done the scene earlier in the day. They were sitting at a table. And it was a fucking chore. We did a shot of him, and a shot of her, and then a close-up. I was like, "This fucking feels like shit". At the end of the day I said, "Just sit on that park bench and let's do it like that". And it was so much easier.

That takes a certain confidence, doesn't it – to resist being at all ostentatious in your direction?
But this is also a weed-smoking movie, so that inevitably gets into it, too. If you've got everyone coked-up, you probably get a bit more Boogie Nights energy to it. We get a little bit of that energy going with Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd [Martin Short], at the dentist; cocaine comes in and we start to be a bit frenetic. But yeah, you try to prove yourself as a director when you're starting out; I think everyone does, or has. And then when you feel like you've got the job, you can settle down a little bit, hopefully just servicing the story, servicing the actors.

Beneath the gags and the Pretzel-plotting throbs a real sadness...
The obvious thing there, for that era, is that they fucked up and they lost and they let it slip away. But like any liberal-thinking hippy, they'll probably argue about their ideas for too long or end up getting stoned and confused and not have enough manpower to really follow through on the battle [laughs]. But I think deeper than that is that thing Doc has for Shasta. That's something that everybody can get with – the girl I shouldn't be with but I need to know who's she fucking, where did she go, what did I do? That was really heart-breaking in the book. How much you can miss someone.

All of your films have dealt with dysfunctional families, with fathers and sons. There's a bit of that in Inherent Vice, too.
For sure. It's small, but that stuff with Coy Harlingen [a missing saxophonist played by Owen Wilson] and his family. Coy says to Doc [asking after the child he left behind], "Did you see any sign of those little-kid blues? They can get that. Did you see anything?" [Groans] It makes my fucking heart melt. And Doc's kind of pretty easy-going on everything, but his one moral stand is, whatever mistakes this guy made, nobody should go through life without seeing his daughter. So that little family connection is in there. That stuff gets me every time. I love the way Pynchon does that in the book. I think we did a pretty good job of it.

When Robert Ebert reviewed Bonnie And Clyde, he wrote "It doesn't matter that it's set 35 years ago... It was made now and it's about us." Is that true of Inherent Vice?
That's good. That's nice. Well yeah... the Golden Fang is still in business [laughs]. Probably more so than ever. Back then, people would call conspiracy theories. They're not even conspiracy theories anymore. It's just fact that we live with. It used to be, "You're fucking high, you're paranoid." It almost seems like now they're saying, "We know you know, and we don't fucking care. We used to hide it, and now that you've found us out, what you gonna do about it?" Whether it's youth or generational, everyone's always got ideas how they're gonna make things better, and end up fighting up against something bigger than them that just pushes them into the ground.

Do you consider Hollywood part of the Golden Fang?
Yeah. I don't think, fortunately, this has happened to us so far – who knows if it might? – but inevitably, I'm sure, movies are being financed through some horrible human rights violation somewhere in some African country. Hey look, I'm staying at the Trump Hotel, and the building's shaped like the Golden Fang, and they've sponsored the film festival. There's a great line in the book, it didn't make it into the movie: "Are you sure about this, man? Are you sure you can trust people this heavy duty?" And Doc says, "Good people get bought and sold every day. You might as well trust somebody evil once in a while. It makes no more or less sense."

Tell us about Police Squad! being an inspiration.
The things that entertain me, or that I have time for, are usually, like, a half hour, or cartoons, or Police Squad! At this point in my life, I'm as guilty as anybody else of watching something on my phone, or on YouTube. I used to watch three movies a day, sitting on my couch. Now I have four kids and I'm watching things in a way different way. I'm watching a 10-minute piece of something, or I'm watching a music video, or I'm seeing a clip from some TV show, or watching a trailer for a movie rather than seeing the actual movie. With the amount of time I have to go see films, there's now high
stakes. Like, when I went to see Interstellar, I was like, "I'm going to see fucking Interstellar, at the theatre." That's important to me. Sadly, I don't [usually] have the time. Kent Jones, the guy who runs the [New York] Film Festival, he's living a fucking dream life, in some way. He watches everything, all the time. I'm not at that spot.

Your family obviously takes precedence, but you inhaled movies when you were younger. Is there a part of you that misses that?
Yeah. I got deathly sick about six months ago, to the point I could not get out of bed. I was laying there, watching movie after movie. And I thought, 'I might stay sick for a couple more days' [laughs]. I mean, I was getting a lot of sympathy from the wife, I didn't have to make lunch and get everyone ready for school. I thought, 'I could spread this out'. And I did, just for an extra half a day. But the point is, I did need to refuel on movies. It wasn't just me being lazy. It was proper pause to say, 'I'm watching this movie and I'm receiving it well. I'm not distracted, I'm not falling asleep, and I'm enjoying it whether I really like it or not.'

Scorsese, it's been said, used to have different movies playing in every room of the house. He'd absorb them by osmosis as he pottered around...
He's a fucking junkie, in the best way. I don't want a TV in every room; that's too much info for me. But I have a small TV in the kitchen and I put on Turner Classic Movies. That's a way for me to have it there as wallpaper, or a little comfort
blanket, or check in to see what's going on while you're making dinner. And the kids can watch it. No matter what's on, they can watch it because there's not going to be too much disgusting shit for them to see. Grabbing it piece by piece in a busy life is sometimes all you can take. I think it's OK. Sneak a look. It's preferable to see it in a movie theatre, but I don't feel bad. If I'm going to get on a plane to go home, I'm gonna watch three movies before I get back.

Back to Inherent Vice. Katherine Waterston gives a breakout turn as Shasta. People after the premiere were saying that her nude scene is this movie's equivalent of There Will Be Blood's "I drink your milkshake!"
Good. I think that's good, right? The sex scene is pretty much how it is in the book. It becomes something that is special and unique because it's one shot, which is always ideal, particularly if someone is naked and really vulnerable, instead of saying, "You're gonna have to do this 40 times in  five different ways." That was a good one. Concise, focused, and letting her have opportunities to do a good take. But I like that people are responding to that scene because I think it's a special one.

So, what's next? You sometimes have big gaps between films. You're not going to pull another Kubrick, are you?
We've been working pretty consistently from The Master to this. But... I don't know. I don't have an answer. Everything's always percolating, but nothing serious. I can only do one thing at a time. Right now, my instinct is I just want proper
pause. And who knows how long that will last? Hopefully just a couple of weeks, or a couple of months. Take it easy and not force it. But at the same time, you feel the clock ticking. Honestly, I'm tired right now. But in a good way, feeling we  did it, like we've done something good

[amoral]

New clip from Inherent Vice from Martin Short's appearance on The Tonight Show with (ugh) Jimmy Fallon.

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/segments/77851

[Garam]

and new trailer with Can soundtrack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbyrQFgRuHA

came out yesterday in America. A lot of people hate it.

[Blinder Data]

Now that's a poster.

Joaquin Phoenix looks very funny in this. I can't wait to be totally confused and amused for two and a half hours.

[Garam]

Looks like they'll be releasing equally cool character posters as well

[Garam]

[Head Gardener]

fresh - http://looop.blogs.sapo.pt/jonny-greenwood-inherent-vice-2014-379009

[jenna appleseed]

Looks like they'll be releasing equally cool character posters as well

New one "Owen Wilson is Coy Harlingen."


massive image
http://41.media.tumblr.com/9cab38c4e9256e39e8a0f65353e9c7bd/tumblr_nhcw3uzUDh1tmhoieo1_1280.jpg

[Garam]