By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Joanna Newsom | Joaquin Phoenix | Josh Brolin | Katherine Waterston | Owen Wilson | Reese Witherspoon
Country: united_states
Year: 2014
Running time: 148
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1791528/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Thom says: “Other than BOOGIE NIGHTS, which I loathed, I’ve been a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson films, although, truth-to-tell I’ve only given my highest rating to THERE WILL BE BLOOD. And there were really great parts of MAGNOLIA, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, & THE MASTER. But this adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel is a bit of a mess. In my youth I was supercilious in my embracing of the brilliant Pynchon, really loving V & Gravity’s Rainbow, but over the years my interest in him waned but still this project fascinated me.”
“But over the torturous next 148 minutes scene after scene drifted off into an absurdity that often got tiresome. If not for the many, some even successful, comic scenes it would have been a total waste of time. When I have to keep pinching myself to stay awake, something’s amiss. Here we have Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello (Phoenix gives his usual, gifted all), a detective, who is surprised by a past boogie with a tale of intrigue & kidnapping (in the entire history of the world has there ever been a successful kidnapping with victim returned, ransom paid, and perpetrators getting off scott-free, OK, times up) involving her billionaire boyfriend (is a million no good anymore?) his wife and her boyfriend. Hippy-hating Christian ‘Bigfoot’ Björnsen (Brolin in a
romp), a cop gives everyone all they can handle. It takes place during the psychedelic 70s and drugs take up a huge part of the story with few characters ever appearing sober. But the story ends up limping along and I nearly ran out of the theatre in joy once the credits rolled. Most of the rest of the cast were given far too little to do considering the overall length of the film. 1.5 cats”