Inherent Vice (2014 Paul Thomas Anderson & scr)

From a 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon (another B. Traven in his mystery), the plot is so elusive that just when you think you're getting the hang of it, it drifts away like the smoke from one of Joaquin's joints. Then I realised that the film looked like a seventies movie but was in fact one from the forties, with shades of the Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely seeping through.

Robert Elswit's celluloid photography ('there's only really one lab left in LA') is fantastic, as is PTA's direction (Elswit: 'he's all about finding the film while he's making it'), Altman's California Split as much an inspiration as The Long Goodbye.

With Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Maya Rudolph, Hong Chau, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone and Martin Short.

Joaquin Phoenix: great comic touch

Hong Chau and Joaquin