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Inherent Vice is a 2014 American period neo-noir mystery comedy film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon. The ensemble cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Martin Short and Joanna Newsom. The film follows Larry "Doc" Sportello, a well-intentioned but fumbling stoner, hippie, and private investigator embroiled in the criminal underworld of 1970 Los Angeles, investigating three cases linked by the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and her wealthy new boyfriend. Anderson's adaptation of Inherent Vice had been in development since 2010; it is the first and so far only Pynchon novel to be adapted for the screen. It is Anderson's second collaboration with Phoenix, following The Master (2012), and involves a number of his other recurring collaborators, including producers Daniel Lupi and JoAnne Sellar, cinematographer Robert Elswit, editor Leslie Jones, and composer Jonny Greenwood. Inherent Vice premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 2014, and began a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 12, 2014, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, costumes and screenplay, but some criticizing the complicated plot. It was nominated for several awards, including two at the 87th Academy Awards and Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Phoenix at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. The National Board of Review named it one of the ten best films of the year. Some critics said that Inherent Vice has the makings of a cult film. In 2016, it was voted the 75th best film since 2000 in an international critics' poll. Plot In 1970, Shasta Fay Hepworth visits the beach house of her ex-boyfriend, Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private investigator and hippie in Gordita Beach, Los Angeles County. She tells him about her new lover, Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann, a wealthy real estate developer, and asks him to help prevent Mickey's wife and her lover from abducting Mickey and committing him to an insane asylum. Doc meets with Tariq Khalil, a member of the Black Guerrilla Family, who hires him to find Glen Charlock, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood he met in jail, who owes him money and is one of Wolfmann's bodyguards. He visits Mickey's Channel View Estates project, entering the only business in the developing strip mall, a massage parlor, where he meets an employee, Jade. He searches the premises for Charlock, but is hit with a baseball bat and collapses. Doc wakes outside, lying next to Charlock's dead body and surrounded by policemen. Interrogated by LAPD detective Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen, he learns that Wolfmann has disappeared. His attorney, Sauncho Smilax, arranges for his release by the LAPD. Doc is hired by former heroin addict Hope Harlingen, who is looking for her missing husband, Coy. Although told that Coy is dead, she believes he is alive due to a large deposit to her bank account. Jade leaves Doc a message apologizing for setting him up with the police and telling him to "beware the Golden Fang." He meets her in an alley, where she explains the Golden Fang is an international drug smuggling operation. Jade introduces Doc to Coy, who tells him he is hiding at a house in Topanga Canyon. In a later meeting, he explains he is a police informant and fears for his life, wanting only to return to his wife and daughter. Doc talks to Sauncho, who tells him about the suspicious boat, the Golden Fang; the last time it sailed, Shasta was on board. Thanks to a postcard from her, Doc finds a large building shaped like a golden fang and meets dentist Rudy Blatnoyd. Bigfoot calls Doc and tells him that Blatnoyd has just been found dead with fang bites in his neck. Bigfoot decides to help Doc find Coy and tells him to search for Puck Beaverton in Chryskylodon, an asylum run by a cult connected to the Golden Fang. There, Doc finds Mickey, who is being watched by the FBI. Mickey tells him he felt guilty for the negativity his real-estate business caused and wants to give his money away, appearing to be a happy member of the cult. Doc also glimpses Puck and Coy. When Doc returns home to his beach house, he is greeted by Shasta, who has returned and is indifferent to the trouble her disappearance has caused. She tells him Mickey is back with his wife. Shasta confesses to having been on the Golden Fang with Mickey on a "three-hour tour" and says she was brought along to be used sexually by all of Mickey's friends. She brags about what she did on the boat to provoke Doc into sex, then tells him they still aren't back together. Penny, an assistant district attorney with whom Doc is having a fling, gives him confidential files from which he learns that the LAPD pays the loan shark Adrian Prussia to kill people and that one of his victims was Bigfoot's former partner. Prussia is tied to the Golden Fang, and Doc learns that Charlock was involved with a deal, which is why he was killed. Doc visits Adrian, noticing his obsession with baseball bats, but is abducted and drugged by his partner, Puck. He manages to escape, killing both Puck and Adrian. Bigfoot appears and rescues him, driving him home, but Doc discovers he has been set up: Bigfoot has planted heroin in his car (stolen from the Golden Fang as revenge for murdering his partner). Doc arranges for the drugs to be returned to the Golden Fang in exchange for Coy's freedom. He drives Coy home and watches as he's reunited with Hope. Bigfoot busts down Doc's door, eats an entire tray of marijuana that Doc is using and leaves, noting that he knows why Doc did what he did. Doc and Shasta drive off together, and he tells her this doesn't mean they are back together. Cast Production Development It was first reported in December 2010 that Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to adapt Inherent Vice; at the time, he had been writing a treatment and started on a script after The Master (2012) had been shelved indefinitely months prior. Anderson originally adapted the entire 384-page novel sentence by sentence which made it easier for him to cut down the script than the novel. By February 2011, Anderson had written a first draft and was more than halfway done with a second draft. The first draft was written without a narrator but the character of Sortilège was later turned into the voice of the narrator. In September 2012, Anderson stated that he was still writing the script but was hoping he could get Inherent Vice into production and have a few years of being more productive. This is the first film adaptation from a Thomas Pynchon novel, with Anderson describing it "like a Cheech & Chong movie". Years prior, Anderson considered adapting Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland, but could not figure out how. When Inherent Vice came out, he was drawn to it and wrote the film con.... Discover the Doc Sportello popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Doc Sportello books.