FINALLY saw Inherent Vice
John Bailey
sundayjb at gmail.com
Tue Mar 24 18:38:26 CDT 2015
I await it eagerly.
On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 10:26 AM, Dave Monroe
<against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
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