Under The Silver Lake (15.)
Directed by David Robert Mitchell.
Starring Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Riki Lindhome and Callie Hernandez. 139 mins.
After his debut film success, It Follows, critics thought writer/ director DRM was a new horror master in the style of Carpenter or De Palma. After this sprawling and indulgent LA set follow up, he'll be seen as the new Richard Kelly, the Donnie Darko creator who crashed his career with his sprawling and indulgent LA set follow-up Southland Tales.
While It Follows confined itself to knowing nods to 80s horror, Silver Lake feels like a homage to everything. There are references to all kind of styles and eras, but predominantly it is working in the style of David Lynch, in particular, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Jobless Sam (Garfield) is his Jeffrey Beaumont, a voyeur who likes to peek into other people's lives and finds himself sucked into a giant Eyes Wide Shut-style conspiracy when he starts to look into the sudden disappearance of a girl from the neighbourhood (Keogh.)
It is a big, defiant mess. The plotting is repetitive and frustrating. Garfield's Sam goes somewhere, finds out something or very little, goes home, goes somewhere else, finds out something or very little, goes home. And all of these trips seem very similar. Characters are introduced, seem to be important and then get dropped. (If they are female they often strip off and are then forgotten about.) The plot is so confusing and dense even the film loses track of it. There are numerous diversions and dead ends and bits that really do not make any sense at all. If the film gets any kind of traction at all they'll be posting Youtube videos for decades trying to explain its inner meaning, or how it is secretly revealing the Illuminati/ satanic working of Hollyweird, its hidden debauchery and sacrifices, and that's why DRM never got to make another film.
I can understand why people will find it an annoying/ frustrating/ self-indulgent POS but if you accept that the film is, to a certain degree, trying to annoy and frustrate you, taking away your usual creature comforts, and just go with it, it is intriguing. It helps that it is blessed with a magnificent Badalamenti-style score by Disasterpeace and a deceptively strong performance by Garfield, who holds it all together. It does not all add up but it isn't supposed to and it does stay with you, especially, possible spoiler, a chilling encounter with a demonic Barry Manilow figure who writes the songs the whole world sing.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell.
Starring Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Riki Lindhome and Callie Hernandez. 139 mins.
After his debut film success, It Follows, critics thought writer/ director DRM was a new horror master in the style of Carpenter or De Palma. After this sprawling and indulgent LA set follow up, he'll be seen as the new Richard Kelly, the Donnie Darko creator who crashed his career with his sprawling and indulgent LA set follow-up Southland Tales.
While It Follows confined itself to knowing nods to 80s horror, Silver Lake feels like a homage to everything. There are references to all kind of styles and eras, but predominantly it is working in the style of David Lynch, in particular, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Jobless Sam (Garfield) is his Jeffrey Beaumont, a voyeur who likes to peek into other people's lives and finds himself sucked into a giant Eyes Wide Shut-style conspiracy when he starts to look into the sudden disappearance of a girl from the neighbourhood (Keogh.)
It is a big, defiant mess. The plotting is repetitive and frustrating. Garfield's Sam goes somewhere, finds out something or very little, goes home, goes somewhere else, finds out something or very little, goes home. And all of these trips seem very similar. Characters are introduced, seem to be important and then get dropped. (If they are female they often strip off and are then forgotten about.) The plot is so confusing and dense even the film loses track of it. There are numerous diversions and dead ends and bits that really do not make any sense at all. If the film gets any kind of traction at all they'll be posting Youtube videos for decades trying to explain its inner meaning, or how it is secretly revealing the Illuminati/ satanic working of Hollyweird, its hidden debauchery and sacrifices, and that's why DRM never got to make another film.
I can understand why people will find it an annoying/ frustrating/ self-indulgent POS but if you accept that the film is, to a certain degree, trying to annoy and frustrate you, taking away your usual creature comforts, and just go with it, it is intriguing. It helps that it is blessed with a magnificent Badalamenti-style score by Disasterpeace and a deceptively strong performance by Garfield, who holds it all together. It does not all add up but it isn't supposed to and it does stay with you, especially, possible spoiler, a chilling encounter with a demonic Barry Manilow figure who writes the songs the whole world sing.
