proximoception | (no subject)

Haven't finished it yet, but the Inherent Vice movie seems actually great.

Don't entirely trust myself though. I'm just now able to enjoy anything at all after being stomped by illness. Still have bronchitis and laryngitis and can't do much, but got enough appetite back that I had some frozen potstickers and they were amazing. There should be a restaurant where they only sell that, I feel. So maybe I feel wrong about Inherent Vice. Been quite a while since I've seen a movie could be what it is.

Don't I usually hate this director? Didn't make much headway with the book, either.

Feels a bit like Pynchon's decided that the influence of Crying on Chinatown means he owns Chinatown. Maybe ditto with Big Lebowski. Definitely a feeling of something ... prior ... stirred up. His basic myth is a strong one (I'm the guy who liked Vineland), and somehow this presentation is making him entirely naturalistic, or proving he had been all along. Kind of an amazing feat. PT Anderson must only ever adapt. And these actors are so fun!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I can only judge the film, but yes, the noir engine was intact even of it drove somewhere Chandler did not. Noir's so close to satire that I wonder if it even could be satirized, as opposed to parodied. I guess The Big Lebowski comes close, by pointing out that few people end up getting murdered by domestic rich people hijinx, and Vice follows it in the conceit of a too-high-to-do-more-than-react detective. But even there the genre's still being used to compare different sorts of people and favor one - high and passive is the higher ground, considering.