Inherent Vice

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

• “The film is stupendous: as antic as Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love, but with The Master and There Will Be Blood’s uncanny feel for the swell and ebb of history.”

  Robbie Collin, The Telegraph · 100

• “This movie is so funny, so strange, so wonderfully charmingly deranged.”

  Drew McWeeny, Hitfix · 100

• “Anderson’s seventh feature film is a groovy, richly funny stoner romp that has less in common with “The Big Lebowski” than with the strain of fatalistic, ’70s-era California noirs (“Chinatown,” “The Long Goodbye,” “Night Moves”) in which the question of “whodunit?” inevitably leads to an existential vanishing point.”

  Scott Foundas, Variety · 100

• “The dangers of filmmakers trying to replicate a golden era rather than embrace the present are part and parcel of Inherent Vice, but the ramifications are political as well.”

  Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine · 100

• “A hilariously louche and ramshackle psychedelic noir, Inherent Vice is an audacious stylistic leap for Anderson, but his risks pay off beautifully. It's an amazing work, capturing the heady vibe of Thomas Pynchon's novel while stumbling into in the great cinematic lineage of California noir.”

  Craig Williams, CineVue · 100