My favorite films are often of the detective sort.
Anything Raymond Chandler based usually does it, be it older Bogart stuff or newer films like Altman's The Long Goodbye and heavily influenced films like Shane Black's Kiss Kiss or The Nice Guys. The great detective story can come from many places. The Coen Brothers' Lebowski is one of the best. Add Inherent Vice to that. Add Brick and Blade Runner, though there we start to blur the line into Noir, which is almost inevitable, but I'm talking more so about the Detective Story, as described by Chandler himself at one point in "The Simple Art of Murder."
When you take a great detective story like Chandler's The Long Goodbye or Pynchon's Inherent Vice and pair it with a phenomenal director, you can get something next level.
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the best, and this is my favorite of his films. That says a lot, when you take a look at Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, I could just list them all.
The design, the music, the color, the rhythm and composition, the story and characters, all mirror or compliment each other in tone. PTA mixes them perfectly here. Funny, heartfelt, dark, heavy, sweet, odd, surreal. Just sit back and let the film play.
Be well.
