FINALLY saw Inherent Vice

[Dave Monroe]

I'm STILL writing my review/essay/magnum opus (for me, @ any rate) on
the film.  After the M&D read (though if anybody's identified which
Adam 12 episode PTA inserted Bigfoot into, I'd appreciate not having
to keep googling/watching the series in its entirety [+ I used to
watch it nigh unto daily, was being rerun until recently n MeTV, may
still be, just @ a less opportune time).

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 6:23 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> I could watch it if I tricked my computer into thinking it lives in the US.
>
> The old film theory nerd in me reckons it would be fun to do a
> group-read of the movie one day. Noting what works and what doesn't
> and what tiny choices have been made that might be missed on a casual
> viewing.
>
> Eg the opening shot of the beach between two houses (which is repeated
> later) seems to be what Doc is staring at as he lies on the couch, but
> conventional editing would require those two shots be sequential.
> Instead PTA makes us join the dots to comprehend what Doc is probably
> seeing and possibly thinking.
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 10:15 AM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> You can get IV on your tv now. Watch it over and over. Not that it gets any
>> better after a couple of viewings.
>> On Friday, March 20, 2015, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Which has only been out here for a week. Figured the 11.50am session
>>> at my local cinema would be empty but was pleasantly surprised to
>>> share the session with a handful of elderly folks.
>>>
>>> I'm with Mr Monroe - or, at least, if that isn't Pynchon in the
>>> background of the Topanga scene, it's at least a Pynchon figure
>>> overseeing the exchange that holds the whole film together for me.
>>>
>>> It's a much more coherent work than I'd expected and I think I enjoy
>>> it more than the novel (which wasn't that much to begin with).
>>>
>>> The Golden Fang isn't an ambiguous fog of possibility like it is in
>>> the novel - it's a very identifiable conspiracy connecting a whole
>>> bunch of institutions and individuals and power structures and even
>>> though we (and Doc) only see a small corner of it, it's enough to
>>> project the larger picture. The players don't even necessarily see
>>> their position within it (eg Blatnoyd) but we're given more than
>>> enough dots to join.
>>>
>>> And the Fang is clearly a metonym for the America Coy alludes to in
>>> the aforementioned scene, which is a vertically integrated System that
>>> hooks its kids with mindless pleasures and then offers them relief
>>> through equally mindless promises of redemption. Heroin (and the
>>> Chryskolodon Inst) in the film is totally symbolic of that, as well as
>>> being an actual part of it.
>>>
>>> The film makes explicit how Doc's real investment in all the goings-on
>>> is to see Amethyst get a parent back. It's the film's emotional payoff
>>> and to me only really makes sense if the Golden Fang plays out as a
>>> particular metaphor.
>>>
>>> But that altering of the ending, what a misstep.
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l