IT prompted mass walkouts in the cinema.

Not for offending anyone's sensibilities but simply because it was plain weird.

But I reckon Paul Thomas Anderson's trippy detective story, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, will find its audience on DVD and Blu-ray. It is bound to become a cult classic.

The film sees Joaquin Phoenix play stoner Larry 'Doc' Sportello, an unlikely private investigator living in a Los Angeles beach town in the 1970s.

His ex-girlfriend comes to him with a guilty conscience and asks for him to prevent a plot to abduct a wealthy real estate developer in the 11th hour.

But from that point onwards, the story becomes deliberately hazy and labyrinthine and the best way to enjoy it is not to try and comprehend everything – more or less impossible – but just to go along with it.

There is a murder plot, neo-Nazis, a brothel, a drug smuggling syndicate a man working undercover....in an insane asylum run by a cult.

Think of it as a detective story in the vein of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Big Lebowski and that should give you some idea.

Phoenix is excellent as leading man Doc who walks into this tangled web of intrigue with a mix of charisma and bewilderment.

But there are so many great characters that defy conventions in Inherent Vice. Martin Short stands out as dentist Rudy Blatnoyd, who comes across as a drug addled, womanising Willy Wonka.

And the film is beautifully shot too, brought to us by Paul Thomas Anderson, the director behind There Will Be Blood and Magnolia.