Under the Silver Lake is a 2018 American comedic neo-noir mystery film written, produced and directed by David Robert Mitchell. It follows a quorky man who goes on a journey to find his missing neighbor in a Los Angeles. A world full of mystery, greed, corruption, and sex. Under the Silver lake (2018) movie review
This is the type of movie that only certain types of people would enjoy. However, I am not one of them To me it is nonsensical, random, and overall boring. Everything the character Sam, played by Andrew Garfield, does is random and with no rational sense. For example (not in the movie), the main character would find piece of paper saying “UTA” and he would figure out it means “United truck association”. He would go to their place and knowing exactly what to do. Movie is filled with stuff like this with our main character not thinking twice how it could lead to him getting hurt or even killed.
I know he has no job (but still able to afford a rental in LA’s Silver Lake) or anybody big in his life, but he at least has a girl who he hangs out with and his mom. Him being aloof is not really charming, just idiotic. Sorry for having rational mind and not being open to quirky characters.
For most of the movie the character ends up going to different locations in LA that are touristy spots. He follows random people, homeless king, old naked hippie lady, coyote, naked owl lady, dog killer on the loose (never gets resolved, just mentioned casually) and random girls – coupled with a bunch of break ins to people’s apartments. Sam is a conspiracy nut so he questions everything we are exposed to on a daily basis. He also questions the behavior of young people and what motivates them in life. I am not spoiling the ending but it is not that happy.
Sam sees conspiracy in everything from TV shows to game magazines to billboards and cereal boxes. He is not only a conspiracy believer, but he also wants to believe the craziest of stories in order to connect the dots. The movie is 2HRS and 19 MIN LONG. There are a lot of scenes in here that seem like complete nonsense. It doesn’t seem like this movie leads anywhere satisfying.
If you are one of those people who thinks there are hidden messages in music records, cereal boxes, and human behavior, this movie is for you. You have to have an open mind to everything or the whole movie will fall apart for you. I am not saying the movie is bad. In fact, I think it is ambitious and sometimes funny and charming. However it seems like it is a little too quirky for my taste.
The director took a completely different approach to this movie as compared to his previous work so we can at least agree he tried to experiment with something new. If you turn off your rational mind, you will find charm, love, ambition, and comedy in this movie. It also has a bunch of nudity and sexual themes that could help with your enjoyment of the movie. I just hope you are different from myself and wouldn’t be so hard on the movie that could potentially turn into a cult classic.
Under the Silver lake (2018) movie review
