HERALDSUN.COM.AU THURSDAY MARCH 12 2015 HIT 35

PHOENIX OZ BOX Local lass Margot Robbie draws ’em in RISES OFFICE as Focus opens No.2 with $2.6m. Vince Vaughn's Unfinished Business arrives FILM with little fanfare at No.6 ($634,337).

If your definition of great INTERVIEW LOSE THE cinema is complete immersion in a world you could never have PLOT BUT possibly imagined, then Inherent Vice is everything NOT THE you could wish for. And just as importantly, leaves much to Vice of a generation THRILLS wonder about forevermore. The star of the show here is Phoenix in the lead role of Inherent Vice is set in 1970 Larry “Doc” Sportello, Joaquin where the hippy, INHERENT VICE a man who has never met a Phoenix in trippy peace and love of the marijuana bud or magic Inherent 1960s has given way to a more [ M A 1 5 + ] mushroom he did not like. Vice. menacing, Manson-esque hhhk Despite his perpetually hazy undertone. Phoenix, who spent Director: Paul Thomas state of consciousness, Doc can his formative years on Anderson (There Will sense when the vibes around communes with his family, says Be Blood) him are turning negative at an his early days in LA were Starring: , alarming rate. definitely not of the peace and Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, At times, what is left of his love variety, either. Katherine Waterston, awareness will be all that keeps “I came to Los Angeles when Reese Witherspoon Doc alive as he digs deeper into I was five years old, and my Leaving no stoner a dark conspiracy involving a mum immediately was a unturned beautiful ex-girlfriend secretary at NBC,” he says. “So (Katherine Waterston) and her there’s nothing less hippy than new, married boyfriend, a being a secretary at NBC.” powerful real estate tycoon He started acting around the (Eric Roberts). same time, though, inspired by Then there’s Doc’s his late brother, River. problematic relationship with “I remember the first job that the toughest cop in LA, who I ever did, and it was on a show revels in his nickname of Big called Seven Brides For Seven Foot (Josh Brolin). Doc’s every Brothers, which River was a move is being watched regular on,” he says. perversely closely by Big Foot, After watching two actors who has that rare habit of “go at it” during a fake movie If the collective opinion of the showing up exactly when he fight, he was hooked. many loyal readers of is not needed. “I remember getting this legendarily enigmatic author There are a zillion rush of adrenaline, and it was Thomas Pynchon counts for recognisable names (Owen the most exciting feeling I’d anything, maverick US writer- Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, had. Maybe it’s like touching director Paul Thomas Martin Short) doing the danger, but knowing that you’re Anderson (, There freakiest things they can find in safe — like a highwire, but Will Be Blood) is doomed to fail their repertoire for the director, knowing there’s a net.” in adapting one of their idol’s who revels in the chaos sure Phoenix admits he likes more unwieldy works. to follow. pushing the envelope Nevertheless, this trippy tale It doesn’t make much sense, artistically. In 2010, he made a of a drugged-up, bugged-out but as an exercise in mind- , I’m Still Here, private eye (Joaquin Phoenix) altering time travel, it’s as with his best mate Casey investigating a case in a sun- immersive and involving as Affleck, in which he gave up dappled 1970 southern such fare can get. acting, grew a long beard, California is a truly escapist Just don’t go looking for any mumbled and grumbled and experience. explanations. Just look, man. declared he wanted to be a hip- hop artist. A particularly bizarre For a seeming really rather funny and warm. on a screwball comedy, the interview with David He also has perspective about story jumps all over the place Letterman made the world eccentric, actor his day job (this, people, is rare). and barely makes any sense. think he’d gone mad. that gripped the whole of “People should be asking But, according to Phoenix, He says that people just A LAGER Europe in the early 1980s. Joaquin Phoenix doctors and vets how tough that’s the whole point. “didn’t get the joke”. Mega-rich alcohol tycoon their jobs are, not actors. I “When I first read the book, Away from work, he says THAN LIFE Freddy Heineken (Anthony has a good grip on mean, it’s sooo hard for us.” I was like, ‘Where the f--- am I?’ his life verges on “boring”. Hopkins) has been abducted At 40, Phoenix has made a It’s so crazy and out there,” he “I interact with my friends. BAND OF from his Amsterdam home by a his professional career out of playing difficult says. “But then I realised, you There are very specific places quintet of amateur desperados men. There were Oscar- don’t need to work it out, you I go. There are a couple of NO-HOPERS (led by Jim Sturgess and life, writes nominated turns as a lily- just go with it. I don’t need to be restaurants I like to go to, and a Australian stars Ryan Kwanten livered emperor in Gladiator trying to figure this all out.” couple of parks I like to go to,” and Sam Worthington). Tiffany Bakker and a close-to-the-bone The movie is Phoenix’s he says. “I do the same things. The price tag for his return? performance as a troubled second with Anderson, the man I’m a creature of habit.” KIDNAPPING Almost 50 million dollars in Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. behind Boogie Nights, Magnolia He also reckons that his today’s money. He chalked up another and . career ambitions are pretty MR HEINEKEN Will the lads get away with “This is going to be the worst Oscar nod for his role as a war The first collaboration singular. And that despite [M] it? Best avoid any spoilers about interview ever,” yells Joaquin veteran enamoured with a cult between them, The Master helming a few music videos, hhk how it all will end, and you just Phoenix, animatedly, through leader in Anderson’s The (starring Philip Seymour he has no plans to direct films. Director: Daniel Alfredson might get a kick from what is a haze of cigarette smoke at a Master, which he followed with Hoffman and Amy Adams) was “I like the idea of it, I just (The Girl Who Played destined to go right and wrong downtown Los Angeles hotel. an acclaimed performance in loosely based on the story of don’t know if I have what it with Fire) with this dangerous scheme. “I guarantee it. And it’s not you, Spike Jonze’s Her, where he Scientology founder L. Ron takes,” he laughs. “You have to Starring: Jim Sturgess, Hopkins is all class as always, it’s me. I’m winning in the worst played a man in love with a Hubbard, and was much darker be a master of a number of Anthony Hopkins, Sam but not all of his younger co- interview stakes. I’m just s---.” computer operating system. than Inherent Vice. different things, and I can say Worthington, Ryan Kwanten stars are up to the job. It is not Indeed, Phoenix admits, In his latest outing, Inherent “I actually think that movie’s for sure that I’m not.” From small beer to as if director Daniel Alfredson sucking on another cigarette, Vice, he’s lightened up a bit, (The Master) really funny, but it When it comes to acting, one big, bad payday doesn’t give the bulk of his cast that he’d rather be at home with playing a constantly stoned was more stressful in some ways though, he says he’s totally in every opportunity to make a his dogs than “saying the same private detective embroiled in a than this one,” he says. his right wheelhouse. mark with their characters. s---” he feels he always says case involving a missing real “For one, I ate whatever “There’s something that Actually, the film is far too when he plugs a film. (He’s very estate mogul, drug smugglers, I wanted during Inherent Vice, feels so high stakes and exciting generous in the screen time polite about it, though.) his ex-girlfriend, and a cocaine- and that made the experience about it. It’s hard to put my given over to the very “He says stupid s---. Was he sniffing dentist (played by much better. You might think finger on it but, at its best, it’s predictable ructions in the being weird or was he being Martin Short). I’m joking, but when you’re the best experience I’ve ever ranks among the novice normal?” asks director Paul Based on the novel by starving yourself for a film, it’s had of anything that I’ve ever kidnappers. Thomas Anderson, with a sly Thomas Pynchon, and verging not enjoyable.” done,” he says. “There’s a Freddy Heineken is a far grin, later. “Sometimes he gets moment where you feel — and more interesting character, nervous and flustered.” it sounds so f---ing corny — but quickly sizing up he has a Despite his protestations, it’s like being connected to superior intellect to most of Phoenix, who has a reputation “There are a couple of restaurants I like to go something bigger than you, A middling thriller noticeably his captors, an assessment as being a bit erratic, sensitive to, and a couple of parks I like to go to. I do and there’s something very low on thrills, Kidnapping Mr that could allow him to turn a and occasionally difficult, is the same things. I’m a creature of habit” exciting about that.” Heineken is based on the true life-or-death situation to his certainly not any of these story of a Dutch ransom case own advantage. things. In fact, he’s actually JOAQUIN PHOENIX ON HIS PRIVATE LIFE SEE INHERENT VICE OPENS TODAY

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