MovieChat Forums > Inherent Vice (2015) Discussion > So much for "The Big Lebowski" and Rober...

So much for "The Big Lebowski" and Robert Altman

posted 9 years ago by cellism
26 replies | jump to latest

Sure, it shared things with "The Big Lebowski," and perhaps Robert Altman and "The Long Goodbye," but I don't think that was an accurate representation of "Inherent Vice." I guess people want comparisons when the film seems to fit in specific genres, but I didn't find it appropriate. It was like a Paul Thomas Anderson film doing Thomas Pynchon. It's really its own film. I found it to be mostly unique.

I didn't love it, but I definitely enjoyed the ride. It was bogged down at times, but was ultimately an interesting story and narrative, and fairly enjoyable. It didn't feel like anything else, and I have to award it for that. I will watch it soon.

I'm wondering if the aforementioned comparisons brought it down a bit. Or maybe it was a bit too long and crazy for most to adore it. At any rate, I really had a blast watching it. Different, strange, eccentric, stoned. Very interesting.

[–] lazarillo 9 years ago

It's an adaptation of a BOOK. You're trying to compare it to other movies. "The Long Goodbye" is apropos because that was a Raymond Chandler BOOK relocated by Altman to this same era. Chandler also wrote "The Big Sleep", a seminal and very labyrinthine film noir. It does resemble "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", which was another BOOK set in this same era.

If this movie resembles "The Big Lebowski", it might me more a matter of the Coen brothers being a lot more well-read than their fans rather than Thomas Pynchon being a "Lebowsky-ite". But maybe he is--I don't know.

"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream"

[–] Citation_Needed 9 years ago

but was ultimately an interesting story and narrative, and fairly enjoyable.

Was it? What movie were you watching? The most charismatic actors in the world couldn't make me give two shyts about the characters or what was happening in this movie. Utter garbage story.

[–] dalbrech 8 years ago

Re Big Lobowski:
The Coen's can do this kind of offbeat comedy;PTA, as talented as he is, cannot.
Frakly, PTA has tried his hand with comedy twice and struck out each time.It's something he does not do all that well as a feature film. He can make a very funny sequence in a serious film, but has real problems with a feature length comedy.