Review: Under the Silver Lake

Under the Silver Lake, David Robert Mitchell's follow-up to his 2015 breakout hit It Follows, is a Lynchian L.A. noir that is equally compelling and exasperating. Much like its lead character, a 33-year-old slacker named Sam (Andrew Garfield), it's rudderless at its root but has enough, often interesting distractions to keep itself, and possibly the audience, going.

The film establishes its quirk factor at the jump. A young woman is wiping away the "Beware the Killer Dog" message that has been written on the window of a cafe in which Sam is first seen. As he makes his way home carrying a free weekly whose cover features pop band Jesus and the Brides of Dracula, a squirrel drops out of a tree and splats in front of Sam, who is then welcomed back to his apartment by an eviction notice. Once inside, he settles into his usual routine of lounging on the balcony and spying on his older female neighbour, who goes around topless as she feeds her parrots.

Then in sashays Sarah (Riley Keough) in a white two-piece bathing suit, a portable radio, and tiny dog, which given the dog killer on the loose, makes her potentially vulnerable. Indeed, she disappears the next day, her apartment completely emptied of its belongings, and Sam is left to wonder what the hell happened. His newfound obsession with her fate leads him down a rabbit hole of a La La Land filled with codes, pacts, user agreements, and subliminal messages, where alternative histories and vast conspiracies abound, and where there are suspicious oddball characters at every turn, most of whom end up literally barking at Sam.

It's difficult to know what to make of Under the Silver Lake given its slippery tone, which alternates between satire and the deeply bizarro. That Mitchell is reaching for a vision is not in doubt, nor is it ever a question that he's well-versed in the seedily beautiful version of Los Angeles that we've seen in many a film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler's novels and in films such as Roman Polanski's Chinatown, Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye and, above all, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Under the Silver Lake is a fascinatingly flawed homage to and pastiche of those films. There are times when Mitchell's densely detailed and layered narrative and arresting visuals make for a riveting watch, but it just becomes plain tiresome. One applauds Mitchell for being overly ambitious, but wishes he would have had the presence of mind not to get lost in his own cleverness.

Under the Silver Lake

Directed by: David Robert Mitchell

Written by: David Robert Mitchell

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Laura-Leigh, Zosia Mamet, Jimmi Simpson, Patrick Fischler, Luke Baines, Callie Hernandez, Riki Lindhome, Grace Van Patten