The upcoming Inherent Vice finds one of America’s most respected filmmakers, Paul Thomas Anderson, re-teaming with one of its greatest actors, Joaquin Phoenix, to adapt a work by one of the country’s greatest living writers, Thomas Pynchon. Understandably, the movie has been preceded by a great deal of anticipation and speculation even though the production hasn’t released as much as an official still. The film’s release plans have been shrouded in smoke swirls of paranoid, Pynchonesque mystery. Would it show up unannounced at a smaller film festival, like There Will Be Blood did? Would it screen at Venice, because that was the site of The Master’s official premiere, and because Inherent Vice’s fictional setting, Gordita Beach, reminds a lot of people of Venice Beach, and Pynchon loves corny wordplay?
But wait, isn’t Gordita Beach actually modeled on Manhattan Beach? And doesn’t Pynchon live in Manhattan Beach’s namesake? Is there a film festival in Manhattan? Damn straight there is. It’s a little thing called the New York Film Festival, and it’ll be hosting Inherent Vice’s world premiere on October 4th. A limited theatrical release is slated for December 12th, with a wider expansion in January.