I had a lot of time to mull over Paul Thomas Anderson’s film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice.” After spending two and a half long hours with this highly anticipated film, I then spent another two and a half hours at the Broadway opening of the British National Theater hit “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.”

The former has a lot of stars– Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, appearances by Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon, and the socko introduction of Katherine Waterston (daughter of Sam). The latter has none, just some solid American actors and a 25 year recent Juilliard grad named Alex Sharp who will be nominated for a Tony Award next spring and may win.

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When something really works, you know it. You feel it. No one has to explain it afterwards. “Curious Incident” is like that. I saw it in London in July. The play has such an unusual set that when I saw it before last night’s opening began, I felt like it was seeing an old great friend. I couldn’t wait for everyone to meet it.

On the other hand, you know that “Inherent Vice” is a big happy mess almost from the start. And when you’re convinced of it, you have two choices– walk out (as some did) or stick around and just enjoy the quirks. Anderson has really made “Incoherent Vice” from an impossibly constructed novel. There is a little plot and a little story, but not enough to drive a film. When the screening was over, some of the cast (not PTA or Joaquin or Reese) came to help explain what we’d seen. Good luck.

Anderson is an ambitious director who has made some of my favorite films, like “There Will Be Blood” and “The Master.” The latter film was often cited as being plot-less. Well, “IV” goes well beyond that. Set in 1970 to Neil Young music of that era (approximately), the movie is filmed in a cloud of marijuana smoke. There isn’t a scene in which someone, mostly Phoenix’s  private eye “Doc,” isn’t already high or getting high. And that’s the notion of the film– that some things are real, others are imagined, there’s a lot of fantasy and what more high falutin’ types might call “magical reality.”

The main story seems to be “Doc” investigating the disappearance of a former girl friend named Shasta (Katherine Waterston). This involves the search for a business magnate (Eric Roberts) and the many zany characters he meets along the way. One of them is a cop named Bigfoot (Josh Brolin) who is the Yin to Doc’s Yang.

The other character who remains in the forefront is played by Joanna Newsom. In real life, Newsom is a musician and the wife of “SNL” grad Andy Samberg. Like everyone else in “IV,” she’s very engaging. Her Sortilege is the narrator of the film, much like Linda Manz in Terrence Malick’s classic “Days of Heaven.” PTA, as we know by now, riffs on famous directors (Malick, Altman) the way Brian dePalma used to.

“IV” is set in Los Angeles, Malibu, maybe, although we don’t really see much of it. There’s a “Hurlyburly” feeling to the whole thing, of sex and drugs and maybe Joni Mitchell or the Mamas and the Papas somewhere in a Canyon. There’s slight reference to Charles Manson. But unlike a great movie of that ilk– Hal Ashby’s “Shampoo”– the center is always missing.

PTA captures and creates some outstanding moments from left field sources. Jeannie Berlin grabs your eye at the start, Broadway’s Jefferson Mays is a show stopper more than halfway in. By then, anything could be happening, so you just sit back and take in the spectacle. Robert Elswit has made the film look so delicious that you want to stay even though you know there will not be a satisfactory ending.

The break out star is Waterston, a sort of Barbara Hershey for 2014 ( and this saying a lot). She takes the newcomer crown from Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, and Amy Adams. Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin are movie stars, hands down. Witherspoon and Wilson are fun cameos.

Warner Bros. is going to try and go the same route they did last year with Spike Jonze’s “Her,” which also starred Joaquin Phoenix. I’m not sure that this will work quite the same way. “Her,” for all its futuristic bent, was really a traditional love story at heart. “Vice” takes a far more circuitous route. But I admire them for trying. If nothing else, “Inherent Vice” will be a cult film for stoners.

The press screening for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” this morning brought out unexpected stars– Patti Smith and Ralph Fiennes came together although no one can figure how they know each other. There was a massive line at the Walter Reade Theater– the biggest anyone had seen in a long long time considering the steady rain and the fact that it was Yom Kippur, say my spies. (Yours truly was in shul.)

The reviews are decidedly mixed for this New York Film Festival feature starring Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin. Let’s not forget this movie is based on the odd later work of the very much alive and hiding Thomas Pynchon.

Says one astute observer: “I spoke to three other journalists and we all thought Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is a mess. It has some of the most hilarious stuff I’ve seen but after a while the shtick runs dry.  Joaquin does it over and over, the same expressions, same sight gags, and after a while it gets boring. The whole thing doesn’t jell. No Academy Award nomination for him in this mess.”

This didn’t help: “After the screening, only a few people clapped. It wasn’t an enthusiastic reception to the film and the fact that most of us got shut out of the press conference pissed us off.”

The celeb story: “Ralph Fiennes and Patti Smith showed up at Elinor Bunin Theater where they  mistakenly thought they had to pick up tickets for tonight’s premiere of “Inherent Vice.” A volunteer sent them over to the Alice Tully box office and afterwards she gushed to me she got Patti’s autograph.”

The finale, for now: “The critics like Manohla [Dargis of the New York Times] will love it. It has some of the funniest scenes I have ever seen but lots of repetition and confusing plot. Too much to pack into two hours but definitely some of the critics will love it.”

More later and tomorrow. I am so glad I missed this scene today. Personally, I am looking forward to “Inherent Vice.”

Say goodbye to more moronic Adam Sandler movies in the cinemas. Sandler has wisely made a choice about his immediate future. He’s accepted a four picture deal with Netflix. This will take him out of movie theaters and into home theaters via TV and the internet.

Netflix, booming with “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black,” is smart. They probably see Sandler as a huge TV star who’s had steadily declining numbers at the movie box office. His last effort with Drew Barrymore, “Blended,” grossed $46 million with a $14 million opening. Not good. Two years ago, Sandler’s “That’s My Boy” did $37 million. In 2011, his just as awful “Jack and Jill” did a little better with $74 million.

Sandler offers a strange dichotomy to movie audiences. He occasionally tries to be in serious movies, like the upcoming “Men, Women and Children,” or James L. Brooks’s  “Spanglish.” But his meat and potatoes is a kind of junk in which he plays a man child who has long outgrown his cuteness. Some things still work– like “Grown Ups”– at the box office if not with critics.  None of his movies are in any danger of being in Oscar campaigns. They are solely about making money at the low end of filmmaking.

With Netflix, he’ll make that money and not have to deal with critics or filling seats in theaters. If Netflix moves beyond its model and takes up a position on cable boxes, so much better for Sandler. His core fans will probably be just as happy not to have to spend money on gas, tickets, and candy and popcorn.

Netflix only earlier this week took the sequel to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” a premiere event. The movie will bypass theaters. For certain kinds of films– genre films, indies, movie stars who’ve lost some luster–Netflix is going to be a big deal. HBO and Showtime, among others, are on notice.

EXCLUSIVE: It does look like rocker Dave Matthews is getting more into his acting side of things. Matthews is set to star in a feature film called “Angels” directed by actress and children’s book author Meg Tilly. Meg, of course, made her indelible debut in 1982 in “The Big Chill” and is the sister of zany actress Jennifer Tilly. For several years Meg was also married to much older beloved Hollywood exec John Calley.

In “Angels,” Matthews would play a man with medical and financial problems struggling to get a liver transplant for his two year old daughter. It sounds like a Christmas miracle kind of movie, maybe perfect for the Hallmark Channel. Matthews’ business partner and manager Johnathan Dorfman is listed as executive producer. Filming would begin next March in either upstate New York or in Kentucky. Tilly wrote the script.

Tilly is currently starring in a Canadian TV series called “Bomb Girls” about women who worked in munitions factories in World War II. “Angels” would be her directing debut. Dave Matthews– who’s South African, by the way–has acted a lot, even in two Adam Sandler movies. But we won’t hold that against him.

PS I found the photo of Dave and Meg on line, I think taken by intrepid PR guy Henry Eshelman. Now I owe him lunch or an item about one of his clients.