INHERENT VICE : Tuesday 17th March 2015.

Paul Thomas Anderson is a Director, Writer and Producer who has given us over more recent years a varied back catalogue of films including 'Boogie Nights', 'Magnolia', 'Punch Drunk Love', 'There Will Be Blood' and now his latest offering 'INHERENT VICE', which I saw earlier this week. Based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon from which Anderson wrote the screenplay, he spent US$20M bringing it to the big screen with a solid cast involving some of Hollywood's finest acting talent. This film picked up two Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe nomination and all up 20 award wins and another 51 nominations. Does this make it a great film . . . well no, and I came away a little bewildered by the 'Inherent Vice' experience, and, now sit on the fence over this one!

The film is set in 1970 around the beach town of Gordita Beach in LA County, and the opening shot is between two beach houses looking out at the breaking waves on the shoreline from the street. We are introduced to Larry 'Doc' Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) waking on the sofa from a stoner sleep who is a by-product of the peace lovin' 60's who seems to spend his life smoking on a joint and in a dope fuelled haze. Into his apartment saunters Shasta (Katherine Waterston) an ex-girlfriend who has now moved on and is seeking Doc's help out with her current boyfriend - sleazy but successful real estate developer Michael Z. Wolfmann (Eric Roberts), whose wife is trying to have 'The Wolfmann' committed to an asylum.

Doc is a private investigator and so he agrees to take the case to help out Shasta. At his 'office' the next day he meets with a member of the 'Black Guerrilla Family'  - Tariq Kahlil and is hired to find a member of the Ayran Brotherhood,  Glen Charlock, who Kahlil got know in jail, and who now owes him money and just happens to be a bodyguard of 'The Wolfmann'. When Doc investigates one of Wolfmann's property developments on the outskirts of town looking for Charlock he visits the only property on that development - a brothel, and after meeting 'employee' Jade is promptly knocked unconscious with a baseball bat from behind. He comes round in the yard out the front under the baking sun and next to the corpse of Charlock, surrounded by Police looking down at him. Brought in for questioning by Detective Christian F. 'Bigfoot' Bjornsen (Josh Brolin) Doc gets roughed up and threatened before released with no charge when his lawyer arrives on the scene, Sauncho Smilax (Benicio Del Toro).

Next up Doc is approached with a third case by Hope Harlingen (Jen Malone)  to locate her missing, believed dead husband Coy (Owen Wilson). The two come face to face and Coy is clearly not dead, but he is a police informant who fears for his safety and just wants to go home. Back at his office he meets up with Jade from the brothel who apologises for giving him up to the police and warns him about 'The Golden Fang'. Jade tells him that The Golden Fang is a drug smuggling ring, but lawyer Smilax tells him about a suspicious boat called 'The Golden Fang' that somehow Shasta is connected to. Finding a building that looks like a golden fang Doc visits an obscure dentist, Dr. Rudy Blatnoyd (Martin Short) who has a fetish for young girls, new drugs and a whacky lifestyle . . . but quickly winds up dead - with fang like bites to his neck!

Doc eventually comes across Mickey in the insane asylum that has a connection with The Golden Fang where Mickey confesses about being upset about all the negativity he was getting about his real estate business. To make amends Mickeys wants to give away all his money. Penny Kimball (Reece Witherspoon) is the Assistant District Attorney and gives Doc a confidential file on a police funded killer who knocked off Bigfoot's former partner. The killer had links to The Golden Fang and Charlock was involved somewhere along the way too.

As all this plays out it gets worse for Doc before it gets better needless to say. He continues to suck on marijuana joints at every opportunity and is rarely seen on screen without chewing on a spliff! He has a few run-ins with Bigfoot, straddles about in his usual drug induced stupor, at times he can seemingly hardly string a sentence together, and clings on to the last vestiges of the 60's looking up at the rock face of the looming 70's. There a couple of moments of comic laughter as the plot twists and turns and you wonder if Doc knows what the hell is going on, the performances are solid and Brolin is probably the stand-out playing a hard-nosed mean S-O-B Private Dick at work whilst being a down-trodden under the thumb husband at home, and I got the feeling that Phoenix was just playing Phoenix with a huge serve of mutton chops!

This film has a QT's 'Jackie Brown' vibe about it almost and it all comes together in the end but not before it twists and turns all over the place, and wraps you up in knots with interwoven stories, characters of varying questionable backgrounds and the spaced out psychedelic angst of a new dawning decade. This film was frustrating for me, probably 20 minutes to long and at times I felt it plodded along and lost its way. That said, this is very different film offering that we don't see much of anymore and if you can sit through the stoned out dazed antics, ramblings, stumblings and confusion of its unlikely hero then this might be for you!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 22nd January 2015.

As Sydney sizzles in the sun drenched heat of Summer we have two more big ticket movies hitting our big screens in the coming week - both of them in Oscar contention, and both of them riding the crest of a publicity wave that is generating much excitement and anticipation. Already we have seen a very solid start to 2015 with some big name films coming our way that are also in the Academy Award running, and with those released on 22nd January have already done well at the recent Golden Globes.

The year ahead is sizing up pretty well so far with lots more on the way. For the immediate future though we have a formidable presence in front of the camera as well as behind it, and for his most recent outing he is sat in the Director's Chair delivering us a very recent true story of one of America's finest war heroes leading a very fractured life because of the actions he has had to undertake on behalf of  his country. On the other hand we have an ever increasing Hollywood star on the rise retelling this memoir for the big screen of a long walk to freedom, redemption and rebirth.

When you have seen your movie choice of the week and sat in the relative comfort of silver screen surround sound air conditioning, drop a line in the Comments Box following this or any Post, and share your cinematic experience with our ever growing readership across the world. Enjoy your movie.

AMERICAN SNIPER (Rated MA15+) - Based on the autobiographical book of Chris Kyle (here played by Bradley Cooper) this very recent true story of his life as crack US Army sniper is Directed by  Clint Eastwood. Having first been a US Navy SEAL, following the events of 9/11 he signs up for sniper duty, and in time becomes so expert at his job that he is dubbed 'The Legend' by his colleagues, 'The Devil of Ramadi' by his enemy and sees out four tours in Iraq taking out a confirmed 160 kills of gun toting, bomb carrying, suicide fuelled men, women and child insurgents. Eastwood has a deft touch for such home-spun character heroes whose everyday lives are fuelled by violence, anxiety, tragedy and loss in some way, that he delivers drama and thrills without being over dramatic and keeping to the heart of the story. American Sniper appears to be no exception, and with it both he and Cooper have delivered quite possibly one of Eastwood's best films in more recent years, and, possibly of the best of the War in Iraq movie offerings that we have yet seen.

But, for every such hero there is a flip side? What happens when our hero goes home at night to an empty house and lies awake all night pondering the outcomes of the day? What happens when close family members have to be confronted with the harsh realities of 'the day job', and what happens when your very existence begins to fall apart because of what you do for that 'day job' and those confirmed kills, living on the edge, and not knowing if today will be your last? Starring Sienna Miller as tough as nails wife Taya, we see the impact all of this has on Kyle's life and his emotional state, we see the gun battles in Iraq, those confirmed kills and his own obsession with taking out 'The Butcher' - a high-level insurgent official. Gripping stuff, expertly delivered on all fronts and all the more real for being seen on our TV screens and newspaper pages in recent years and still today. With a nomination for Best Picture and a nomination for Best Actor for Bradley Cooper at the upcoming Oscar's this is one to watch!

WILD (Rated MA15+) - when Reese Witherspoon kept being handed nondescript parts for female actors, and after lobbying several studios for lead roles in upcoming movies that required a female lead, and getting diddly squat, the Queen of Hollywood took her destiny into her own hands. Having created her own production house - Pacific Standard - she set about convincing Nick Hornby to write the screenplay based on the Cheryl Strayed memoir - whom Witherspoon portrays in this film. So as both Producer and Actor, she had Jean-Marc Vallee Direct - he of 'Dallas Buyers Club' fame, who put this Actress through the rigours and torment of playing a troubled character on a journey (both physical and emotional) of discovery and reawakening - much like McConaughey in the aforementioned Oscar winning 'DBC'. Here we see the 20something Strayed embarking on a self-imposed trek of 1,770kms along the 'Pacific Crest Trail' carrying a 27kgs back pack with everything necessary for her survival supposedly. Running along the Pacific coast from the US border with Mexico in the south to the US border with Canada in the north Strayed makes the decision to hike the route to escape her empty life of grief, addiction, desolation and loneliness in the hope of discovering herself, overcoming her own life's adversities, and battling her inner Demons along the way to redemption and inner peace. Of course along the way too she is largely unprepared for both the emotional and physical challenges that Mother Nature will throw at her, and she does, in spades, and often! 'Wild' and Witherspoon is creating Oscar buzz with a Best Actress nominations for Witherspoon and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Laura Dern - go see for it for yourself to see what the fuss is all about!

Two hot new films to whet the appetite in the week ahead and creating a little buzz around Oscar time. When you have checked out either, or both, of these films, or any of those others doing the rounds and as Reviewed or Previewed in previous weeks, share your thoughts with your like minded friends here at Odeon Online - it's always good to get another opinion!

Movies - see as many as you can!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-