Thread: Rate the last movie that you saw for the first time.
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Old 04-30-2023, 09:37 PM   #14798
GD
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Destor View Post
Inherent Vice (2014) - 5/10

Now to be clear I'm giving this neutral rating more than an assessment. I spent the first act trying to figure out what I was watching. PTA films in a lot of ways aren't really meant to be digested in a single viewing so talking about them after that single sitting always feels like a faux pas.

After about 45 min I started to get a feel for what I was watching. That's about how long it took me to realize it was a comedy. I was meant to be laughing.

The film is like if you took Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and made Hunter S Thompson a detective. Like if, an admittedly less cool, The Dude was in a surrealist noir film.

Once I had that much I was able to suss out that most of what I'm seeing is indeed happening..well to an extent. It's surrealism for sure so how it visually plays out is more of an echo of the protagonist's drug-addled fever dream but it's occurring enough. There is one character, the 3rd person narrator, who I do think is mostly fictitious. She might actually be in one scene but that one scene I'm uncertain if it took place...anyways.

You probably see my dilemma here. I don't actually know much about what I saw. The characters storm into the picture and leave as suddenly. Information is given to you and you don't exactly know if it matters and there are moments when they're acting like you know things you're certain they haven't told you.

Now I think this is by design. Like a wild night out on the town being dragged along by a group of friends. Moments blurring past you. The real you and the stoned you tagging in and out of the driver's seat of your soul and not sharing the details between yourselves.

On the 1st screening this leaves this viewer not knowing what to say or think. What I do know is I enjoyed the characters and the actors and I wanted to see how the story unraveled itself and wanted to exist alongside these people for as long as they were on the screen.

In a year or so I'll watch this again and I'll read this post and I'll see if I get it then but for now...I had a good time.
I remember it being a difficult watch. I might have to see it again when I have the bandwidth.
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