Private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello investigates the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend in Los Angeles.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s wild and entrancing new movie, the very first adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, is a cinematic time machine, placing the viewer deep within the world of the paranoid, hazy L.A. dope culture of the early ’70s. It’s not just the look (which is ineffably right, from the mutton chops and the peasant dresses to the battered screen doors and the neon glow), it’s the feel, the rhythm of hanging out, of talking yourself into a state of shivering ecstasy or fear or something in between.

The new film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio del Toro, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, and Martin Short. Written & Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, adapted from novel by Thomas Pynchon.

“Inherent Vice” is the centerpiece from New York Film Festival 2014. Opens in theaters nationwide on December 12, 2014.