What filmmaking techniques does Inherent Vice use?

CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Inherent Vice (2014): Picaresque Structure, Epistemic Collapse, Pop Music Needle Drop and Voiceover Narration Device.

Who directed Inherent Vice?

Paul Thomas Anderson directed Inherent Vice, released in 2014. CineCode also covers Boogie Nights (1997), Hard Eight (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012).

What films are similar to Inherent Vice?

Films that share techniques with Inherent Vice include Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Mean Streets (1973), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Stolen Kisses (1968).

Comedy · Crime · Mystery

Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014

In 1970 Los Angeles, a stoned private eye named Doc tries to find his ex-girlfriend's missing lover, and a tangle of cases opens up. Anderson adapts Thomas Pynchon's novel. Watch how the film lets the plot wander the way Doc's mind does.

1 Narrative 1 Psychology 2 Sound

At a glance

Inherent Vice is a 2014 comedy, crime and mystery film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 narrative, 1 psychology and 2 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Picaresque Structure

Telling the story as a loose string of separate adventures, often following a low-status hero through different levels of society. With no single plot, the episodes add up to a portrait of a world.

How this film uses it

Doc drifts from a massage parlor to a cult-linked asylum to a building shaped like a golden fang. Each case brings a new part of Los Angeles. The episodes add up to a picture of a city in 1970.

Where to see it

The Chryskylodon asylum visit. Doc finds Mickey Wolfmann there, seemingly brainwashed.

Psychology

Epistemic Collapse

Taking away, piece by piece, any way of telling truth from delusion. A character's whole understanding of events falls apart, and you end up just as lost.

How this film uses it

The cases overlap so much that you lose track of who is who. Doc can't tell what is real, and neither can you. By the end, the pieces never line up neatly, and that feels honest to the story.

Where to see it

Doc waking beside a corpse. He is knocked out at a massage parlor and comes round next to Glen Charlock's body.

Sound

Pop Music Needle Drop

Playing an existing popular song at a precise moment in the film. The song's lyrics, era and associations add irony, period feel or emotion that an original score could not.

How this film uses it

Can's "Vitamin C" plays when the film introduces its title. The song has a restless groove that matches the film's lazy, drifting mood. It tells you the film is a trip.

Where to see it

The title sequence. Can's track plays as the title appears.

Sound

Voiceover Narration Device

Using a narrator's voice to guide the story, either as flat documentary report or as a voice that gets interrupted. The narration shapes how much you trust the telling.

How this film uses it

Sortilège, voiced by Joanna Newsom, narrates the film. She is a friend of Doc's, and her voice sits over the events like a mood. It makes the story feel remembered.

Where to see it

Sortilège's narration. She comments on Doc's cases in a calm voice while the plot spins.

Questions

Inherent Vice: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Inherent Vice use?: CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Inherent Vice (2014): Picaresque Structure, Epistemic Collapse, Pop Music Needle Drop and Voiceover Narration Device.
Who directed Inherent Vice?: Paul Thomas Anderson directed Inherent Vice, released in 2014. CineCode also covers Boogie Nights (1997), Hard Eight (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012).
What films are similar to Inherent Vice?: Films that share techniques with Inherent Vice include Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Mean Streets (1973), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Stolen Kisses (1968).

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