Review: Under the Silver Lake (2019)

Under the Silver Lake (2019)

Part of A24's great success has been its ability to market its wide-ranging genre of films to very specific markets - illustrating why each of this indie gems may be the perfect film for you. With Under the Silver Lake however, upon its mediocre reception at Cannes, A24 became a bit stumped, unsure of how exactly to market this enigmatic film, leading to a semi-bout between the production company/distributor and the film's writer/director, David Robert Mitchell, over a possible re-cut for the film. In the end, the director won out and the film remained intact leading to its concurrent theatrical and VOD release.

It is a testament to Mitchell's integrity as an artist that he used his new industry clout following the massive success of It Follows to make such a heady and ambitious film for his follow-up. Under the Silver Lake is a large film; it is a subversive noir that both pays homage to the classic genre while also consistently poking fun at it. It pays many overt tributes to Hitchcock, the original master of the thriller mystery, as well as some of his contemporaries like De Palma (his favourite theme of voyeurism is a focal point here) and Polanski's Chinatown. From the get-go however the film is a bizarre affair. It is off-kilter, it is macabre and it is filled with breadcrumb oddities.

The film follows Sam (Andrew Garfield, in what is perhaps his best performance to date), an unambitious, jobless millennial who spends his days wallowing around his small apartment as the human embodiment of ennui. There, his time is spent observing the micro-world around him - often ogling his female neighbours, and more-often within his conspiracy-laden world, de-coding clues and messages he finds everywhere he looks. These two obsessions collide when a young beautiful woman he meets, Sarah (Riley Keough) suddenly goes missing. What follows is Sam's epic (and especially-strange) journey down the proverbial rabbit hole to uncover what happened to Sarah.

Mitchell understands the noir genre inside and out. He follows all of the classic trappings: the femme fatales and damsels in distress, the shady character run-ins - each threatening and with a new vital piece of the puzzle, the double meanings and the red herrings. Though he uses these to service his story he also holds a mirror up to the conventions, alternating between twisting them into bizarre side-notes or as comedic punch lines. For example, in every classic noir, the handsome and heroic male at the centre of the mystery inevitably hooks up with a beautiful woman also wrapped up in the affair. Here, however, Sam is not your usual noir-star: he is not suave or brave or well put-together. Instead, he is kind of unhinged, a stoner and a creep. And yet, he has run-ins with numerous attractive females and without any effort at all he hooks up with them. Whereas some commentators have seen this as an unnecessary and misogynistic element of the film, I see it as a rather hilarious reflection on the genre. It is in these ways that Mitchell's film is an enjoyable deconstruction of the genre. 

At the same time, Under the Silver Lake falls a little bit apart in its final act. The great momentum it creates through its first hour or so unwinds a bit towards the end. I can't help think that A24 may have been on to something and the film could have been tightened just slightly in the editing room. Nevertheless, Under the Silver Lake is an entertaining and also rewarding film experience, especially for those who have always gravitated to stories of mystery.