Wide - eyed and whacked out on the funny weed, Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) is a mind - fried private eye from sunny Southern California trying to make sense of a series of incidents involving, in no particular order: a spacey former girlfriend (Katherine Waterston); a
missing real - estate mogul (Eric Roberts); a deceased saxophonist who apparently is not, in fact, deceased (Owen Wilson); a coke - snorting dentist with a libido in overdrive (Martin Short); a porno - parlor
proprietress (Hong Chau); a bullying cop with hair cropped in a fearsome flattop (Josh Brolin); a cultlike rehab center; risqué neckties; a big, fat heroin stash; a mysterious sailboat and a torture chamber.