In 2016, it was voted the 75th best film since 2000 in an international critics' poll. Some critics said that Inherent Vice has the makings of a cult film. The National Board of Review named it one of the ten best films of the year. 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 film received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances, costumes and screenplay, but some criticizing the complicated plot. 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. It is Anderson's second collaboration with Phoenix, following The Master, 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. The film follows Larry 'Doc' Sportello, a well-intentioned but inept stoner, hippie, and private investigator in 1970, who is embroiled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld while investigating three cases interrelated by the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend and her new wealthy boyfriend.Īnderson's adaptation of Inherent Vice had been in development since 2010 it is the first Pynchon novel to be adapted for the screen. The cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Hong Chau, Joanna Newsom, Jeannie Berlin, Maya Rudolph, Michael K. 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 Detective's Wife by Joanne Clancy