The only thread I see for this is something about the rumor of an adaptation, so I’m starting a thread for discussion of the movie. We discuss it in this week’s podcast, of course, but I’m really keen for other folks to jump in here when they’ve seen it. I know it will be hard for most to see, as it is in such limited release, but hopefully some who don’t visit the front page will contribute here.
The more I think about this movie, the more I wonder how much I missed. Mainly because I kept thinking about The Big Sleep so much of the time while watching it. Also, and I forgot to bring this up on the podcast, I think the casting of the female roles is really weird in this movie. I’m not quite sure what to make of that, especially the V.O. actress, and the choice to make it a female voice. I’d love to hear some thoughts on that, and on a bunch of other things I have questions about in this movie. I think I missed a lot.
Anyway, I’ll post more lower down, I’m sure. I just wanted a place to talk about this movie since nobody is really talking about it.
[In other news, Kelly and I talk about a movie called The Eagle at the end of the podcast, which I made us watch because I found Exodus: God and Kings to be such a drag. So if you haven’t seen Inherent Vice and want to hear us prattle on about an older movie (meaning not a new release) and read some listener emails about it, jump to the 1:12:16 mark of the podcast.]
I really want to see this, I’m a big fan of the novel and Pynchon’s work in general. I’ll probably have to give the podcast a listen to find out what you guys thought of it.
I’m really looking forward to hearing what a Pynchon reader, and especially fan, thinks of this movie. I’ve read none of his work, and while source material often does not matter [too much] when I watch an adaptation, I’m curious to hear that perspective about this one.
Please do listen after you see it and let me know what you think about the adaptation. Also, if you can recommend a good place to start with reading Pynchon, I’d appreciate that.
I haven’t. The Bogart version is on Amazon.ca and very affordable. Would you recommend the movie? I’m guessing that this is the version to watch and not the Mitchum version?
I’ve never seen the Mitchum version, so I cannot speak to that. I’m speaking of the one directed by Howard Hawks (with Bogart and Bacall). It is absolutely one of my favorite movies. I have watched it more times than I can count. I definitely recommend it, but I do so with the Grandpa Movie Warning ™ appended to it.
“Coming in time for Christmas!” the trailer mewls. Unless you live anywhere in the world that’s not the US. I’ll be seeing this in late January.
However, I have read the book and can say there’s a wonderful sense of Doc’s “drift” from one seemingly unrelated event to another, with the occasional correctional steering from Doc’s intuition and the characters who influence his life (mainly Shasta from memory - it’s been a while).
If the film mimics this slightly wandering approach to the narrative I think I’m going to groove on it.
I got to watch this on Friday night and I was so pleased that the theatre was almost full for the showing. This was such a good movie although I found it hard sometimes to keep track of all the characters. Despite that, the characters felt alive to me and I had the feeling that they all had pasts and futures and I just happened to be watching them during this point in their lives. I really liked that, although I can’t pinpoint what it was that made me feel like that about the characters.
I was doing some reading up on the movie after I had saw it and I found it interesting that it was described as being a chaotic shoot but that they (the actors) all felt safe and really had trust that they would be taken care of.
Spoilerish rambling about the narrator.
As for the female roles and in particular that of Sortilège who is the narrator in the movie, I’m really torn if she is real or not. She certainly seems real at the restaurant but she is also with him when he is driving to Artesia and she talks about Chavez Ravine and Bunker Hill but is suddenly absent from the car as he nears the development and Chick Planet.
I really liked the casting for the female roles in the movie and it felt like each and every one of them was given a moment in the movie to shine. For me Jena Malone and Hong Chau stood out for me.
I think my favorite part of the movie would be Doc and Hope together, not just for the photo reaction but the entire scene is pretty much perfect to me.
I saw this today and loved it, but I’m a huge fan of both Pynchon and Paul Thomas Anderson, so it would have been a shock if I didn’t. I was particularly pleased with how well the humor came across, and Phoenix turned in a fantastic comedic performance. The long take in the car with Doc’s reaction to Bigfoot eating the frozen banana might have been my favorite bit, but the “Something Spanish” note was another high point.
Christien, if you’re still looking for a good place to start with Pynchon, I’d probably suggest either Bleeding Edge (his newest) or Inherent Vice. They may not be his best works and are relatively slight, but the writing in both is fantastic and enjoyable and they’re shorter and less inscrutable (more scrutable?) than his best works. V. is probably another good starting place, but I could still see how it would be easy for someone unfamiliar with him to just bounce off it.
Gravity’s Rainbow is easily (in my opinion) his best, but man that one is rough. It took me about three attempts and a 300 page companion book to make it through when I first tackled it back in high school, but I’ve returned to it about once a year since and appreciate it more each time.
Against the Day is great too (and maybe my personal favorite, even if it’s not his best), but it’s massive length and lack of an identifiable central plot keep me from recommending it as a place to start.
I would strongly recommend The Crying of Lot 49 as a starting point. It’s a distillation of his style when he was at his best. Funny, weird and disturbing, without the lack of discipline that increasingly plagued his post-Mason & Dixon books.
I saw this recently and wow I was surprised at how funny it is. I’ve never read Pynchon’s books, always got the impression his style wasn’t for me. Now I’ll have to reconsider. It’s my type of humor, example the scene with Belladonna(!) where he says something like “I’ve heard interesting things about him” and she replies “He’s an asshole” and he says “Oh, so you dated?”. It’s just a quiet exchange that isn’t emphasized at all, if you aren’t paying attention you might not even notice it, but I thought it was funny. The movie is filled with moments like this. Oh and the commercial for the housing development was right on!
This isn’t going to be for everyone, it’s not an overtly funny comedy, and nothing much ‘happens’, but it’s Chinatown if Chinatown was set in the early 70s and was a hippie/stoner comedy, how can you not like that?
Finally got round to watching this and listening to the podcast. Two thoughts spring to mind.
How did you guys not talk more about The Long Goodbye? When (Kelly?) said there weren’t many hippie noirs, my head almost exploded. You did of course get round to Lebowski, but TLG seems like such an obvious point of reference.
So, Lebowski. This is totally Lebowski, right? Obviously, the stoner protagonist, but also the ostensible kidnap victim with the rich partner who wasn’t actually kidnapped , the hippie-hating police officer, the overt periodicity (I know that’s not the right word), the convoluted plot that ends up meaning nothing, hell, even the Chinaman not being the issue. The main difference is, as you pointed out, the Dude is reactive, whereas Sportello is actually doing detective work. I like to say that the only detective work the Dude does in the entire movie is that phone pad rubbing thing, which of course yields nothing.
Edit: Oh yes, also, how the hell is Chinatown not as good, Kelly? What sort of monster are you?
WOW and thank you! I watched The Long Goodbye for the first time 2 years ago and has been a favorite of mine since. I definitely thought of it watching Inherent Vice and Big Lebowski. When will there be a hippie noir somewhere besides LA though?
