Entertainment Weekly has posted the first image from Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming film Inherent Vice, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon. Anderson is one of a handful of directors whose next film I eagerly await. He joins Fincher, Tarantino, Nolan, The Coen Brothers and Richard Linklater as the the most exciting filmmakers currently working. The next group of up and coming directors on their way into this class would include Edgar Wright, Matt Reeves, Alfonso Cuarón, Nicholas Winding Refn, Steve Mcqueen, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Jason Reitman. But I digress…

Vice centers on Joaquin Phoenix as stoner detective Larry “Doc” Sportello searching for the missing, married boyfriend of his ex, femme fatale Shasta Fay (Sam Waterston’s daughter Katherine) in 1970 southern California.

EW reports, “Inherent Vice swings between suspense and absurdity with an A-list ensemble cast (including Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, and Owen Wilson) and a pile-up of subplots involving conspiracies and faked deaths, heroin cartels and pimps.” It tonally sounds like a cross between Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk Love. 

EW’s image features a very focused and intense Phoenix with Josh Brolin as “hippie-hating LAPD detective named Christian “Bigfoot” Bjornson.” The picture certainly evokes the time period.

I don’t know about you, but this is one of my most anticipated films to see this year.

Inherent Vice opens on December 12th.