 Starting things off, allow me to offer up my apologies for being late with this one. Some important personal life management stuff has been falling into place over the past week, it's been busy. But I'm also not gonna use that as an excuse, fess up, and admit that this is a hard movie to review. If I'm very, very honest, I should probably watch it all over again to fully get it, but it's a bit of an ordeal. What I'm talking about here is a (pretty much) 2.5 hour stoner comedy where nothing much really happens other than an unfolding of different events that may or may not link to one another. In many ways, it reminded me of 'Lebowski', but 'Lebowski' had a much simpler script.
Just for proof, I'm gonna leave the Wiki link right here. You can probably follow the fully unwrapped plot more than I could, but if you don't "wait, what?" at least once, you win. What do you win, exactly? The satisfaction of getting your mind around the messy plot. But hey, maybe it's just me, and I blinked when I shouldn't have or something. Personally speaking, I just found it hard to follow. Anwyay, here's my best shot. Larry "Doc" Sportello is a stoner detective, living in L.A., circa 1970, taking odd jobs, and we basically follow these varying subplots as they unfold, often in hilarious fashion. I actually feel kinda rotten about this review overall 'cause I feel like I could have paid more attention, but I suppose everyone has to have their rough times once in a while. But with that said, for whatever reason, I still didn't find this to be any sort of bad movie. In my confusion, I was happy to see that upon looking up what other people thought, I was not alone on this. For the most part I read that this movie is more about following him along for the time and experience rather than trying to follow any sort of truly tangible plot. Terrible thing to say, but it's living proof that sometimes a matter of "fun" kinda just works out for the best. In that sense, it's where I'd compare it to something like 'Lebowski' again. Though it had a story that was much easier to follow, facing facts, not a lot comes out of it in the end. But damned if it isn't a lot of fun to sit through. The other major comparison to Lebowski though, is just Doc. He's practically Dude Jr. in this. As much as I enjoy that type of role, and for as much fun as I had with the character of Doc, I still can't help but feel he's a bit of a ripoff. That said, as far as stoner portrayal goes, that's my favorite type. The dumbass is funny too, but at least these guys get what's going on around them, even if they're a little dopey as it's all happening. Anyway, this is just one of those titles you'll end up either loving or hating, both for the same reasons of it's sheer confusing story line. It's stylistic at times, funny, and well-acted on all fronts, delivering random laughs a-plenty. For a little extra umph, this one belongs to Paul Thomas Anderson - the very stylistic and perhaps controversial director of titles like 'Boogie Nights', 'There Will Be Blood' and most recently 'Phantom Thread'. This could either be seen as one of his weaker or stronger films, depending on what you get out of it. It's almost like his big experiment for his audience. If nothing else, you can get that this was an interesting project for him. 3/5
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