On second viewing, pretty much all my doubts and quibbles from the first viewing (plus all the doubts and quibbles introduced by others) were soundly squashed. My impression that this was a wonderful bit of spectacle overstuffed with ideas that didn’t fully cohere disappeared.
Am I curious to see a longer cut, because these characters obviously have deeper stories? Hell yeah. Do I need it? Hell no. Whatever’s in that additional footage is still woven in the fabric here, revealed…
How is it I waited this long to see this? I feel like my entire best of the 00s list is completely invalidated for lacking this movie, which would rate very highly. I can also see more clearly where some Bong fans were a little disappointed with Snowpiercer -- while seeing this doesn't mitigate my love for that film it all, it IS a mess when compared to the meticulous construction of this mystery. And how he's able to make…
You know how people are always trying to represent a drug trip on screen, and it's always a bunch of distortions and over-saturated colors and psychedelic bullshit?
Watching Inherent Vice actually feels like being high.
Which is to say that it doesn't always entirely coherent, you'll find things funny that probably have no business being funny, when you think about it later your head might hurt a little, but fuck if it wasn't a goddamned good time while it was happening.
