So far, all we’ve seen from Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice is the briefest of footage snippets and a couple of stills, including a new one last week. All that changes now, because the first teaser trailer for the film has landed.
Adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel, the film follows private eye Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), whose life is disrupted by the appearance of his ex-old lady from out of nowhere. She brings a tale of her current billionaire land-developer boyfriend whom she just happens to be in love with, and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in an asylum.
Set at the tail end of the psychedelic 1960s with paranoia running rampant, Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the time, like “trip” or “groovy”, that’s being way too overused – except that this one usually leads to trouble.
Soon he’s wrapped up in a tale that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, LAPD Detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists... Yeah, Doc’s probably going to wish he just ignored this one.
Featuring a stellar cast that also includes Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Jena Malone, Martin Short and Benicio Del Toro, I****nherent Vice premieres at the New York Film Festival on October 4, although UK audiences will have to wait until January 30 next year.