Fans of Paul Thomas Anderson, easily one of the most important contemporary American directors, have a lot to be excited about this fall. Those with a New York zip code might be able to check out his new psychedelic-noir project “Inherent Vice," based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel and starring recent Anderson favorite Joaquin Phoenix as a drug-fueled private eye, when it premieres as the centerpiece during the New York Film Festival. The rest of us will have to wait a couple months in excruciating anticipation until Warner Bros. releases it in select theaters on December 12th, before it goes wide from there on January 9, 2015.
Until fans get their brand spanking new Anderson fix (or even the whisper of a trailer), here’s an eight-minute tribute to his oeuvre by Vimeo user Daniel Silva to perhaps remind everyone just how much he developed as a versatile filmmaker over the course of only six features. Although containing a certain flow, the editing itself feels a bit too random and doesn’t provide much of a thematic through line.
Regardless of what one might think of the tribute’s technical prowess, it will more than likely inspire Anderson’s fans to dive into their DVD and Blu-ray collections in order to conduct a personal PTA retrospective in the comfort of their own homes, which might have been Silva’s goal in the first place. Check it out below. [35MM]