Under the Silver Lake (2018)

This movie. This movie is one of those that you will either rate at 1/10 after watching half of it and most likely you'll finish your Pizza Hut dinner in silence and go back to watching a safer movie you find entertaining like, The Conjuring 3 or Michael Bay's Transformers 7 or You will rate it a 10/10. Almost no one will rate this a 7/10.

The movie is smart, witty, makes a hellva mystery and it provides the clues very precisely. The clues keep adding up and the payoff leaves with a feeling.

But if you are an open mouth breather that thinks the Exorcist is funny because the little girl swears, this movie is likely not for you. I guess the silver lining for this movie is, is that these movies are still being made these types of movies. One or two a year, these types of movies still get made through all of the loud garbage that's being shoved down everyone's throat's

9/10

Fmovies: My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library. The DVD box doesn't give away much, "A delirious fever dream about one man's search for the truth behind mysterious crimes, murders, and disappearances in his East L.A. neighborhood."

The movie is a homage to 1950s film noir, and even the music was composed to evoke that feeling. Andrew Garfield is Sam, about to get evicted from his apartment for lack of payment, and about to have his car repossessed. But he doesn't seem to be in any rush to get work. He is only interested in finding out why a pretty neighbor disappeared suddenly.

Silver Lake is a community outside L.A., just east of Hollywood. There is also a reservoir there, which plays a role in the mystery. Frankly when it was over neither my wife nor I could explain a story in what we saw, but the style is so captivating that we kept watching.

I enjoyed it, my wife less so. It is not the type of movie everyone will enjoy.

Under the Silver Lake is the third feature film of upcoming director David Robert Mitchell. Mitchell already established his skills in creating atmospheric movies with 2014's It Follows: a clear homage to 80's horror films. And with his new movie it's obvious that he dared to drift even further from the classic hollywood style of filmmaking.

Under the Silver Lake is not an easy movie to digest and will probably not be appreciated by the general public, nor does it need to be. It's clear that Mitchell creates movies out of passion (as the best directors do), and after the success of It Follows he became more bold and as a result was able to create a truely bizzare piece of cinema that reminds us of movies like Enemy (Denis Villeneuve), Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly) and the most obvious: Mullholland Drive (David Lynch).

Sam is a lonely, miserable and in the end quite unlikable guy living in L.A. After a neighbour girl who he became enamoured with dissapears, Sam becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her. The search for the truth reveals more and more weird secrets along the way. Including the disappearance of furniture, a dog killer and hidden messages in the media. If you're looking for a movie with an easy plot that will give you all the answers in the end, this movie isn't for you. Many of the plot elements don't get resolved or explained, but when looking at the movie as a whole, this is not a problem. In my humble opinion it just adds tot he overal weirdness and atmosphere of paranoia that the movie is meant to give way to.

By far the most striking element of this movie is, however, the unique style. The cinematography has some expertly used neo-noir elements, adding to the detective atmosphere of the movie. Furthermore, it's obvious that Mitchell is selective in the shots being used in the movie. Only a minimal amount of shots are used to tell the tale, leading to a very clean-cut look. The movie has some unique camera movements but those are sparsely used as well, contrasting strongly with the otherwise simple camerawork. Because of this, those special camera movements stand out more and really serve their purpose. The use of music and sound elements is also quite striking: in particular the use of mickey mousing, to often compliment the previously mentioned unique camerawork.

Overal Under the Silver Lake is a beautiful piece of cinema that might not be what the average film goer is looking for, but cinephiles will probably appreciate for it's distinct uniqueness and surprisingly well mashed up uses of different stylistic choices.

Under the Silver Lake fmovies. Some may feel like the title is misleading. Then again, what title would fit this movie? I didn't really think too much on that, since I quite liked the movie. Now I can understand what people don't like about it (it seems without a point or goal, main character is not that likeable, some may feel sexist tendencies poking through).

If you can accept this as a movie that is all over the place, does not try to be political correct (quite the opposite) and tests the boundaries of storytelling and character arcs, you may find pleasure in watching this, just as I did. The things you don't find ethical, show that you are "good". Btw something the movie does comment on too. You may like that pragmatic touch or not, but it is there. And while you can also consider it a bit cliche, the way it is woven into the story makes it kind of unique.

Again, this will not be something that will touch many people (as is evident by the rating already), but those who get behind it, will love it with all they have. You just have to find out on which side you are on

I was kind of surprised by this movie experience. I just came back from sneak preview and the movie still lingers in my mind. I love Andrew Garfield, his performance was believable and I think he's one one of the best rising stars of Hollywood. I also loved his work in "Breathe", great movie, make sure you check it out.

The storyline is a bit weird, and it's pretty much centered around Andrews character, so the movie felt a bit small to me, but Andrew performance makes up for it big time. I also loved the nudity in this movie. I would describe this movie as playful, curious, funny and authentic. This is not the usual Hollywood crap, it's quite different, I had no idea where the story was going, which is a good thing because it kept me hooked and that doesn't happen to me very often anymore. I truly had a great time. It's not for everyone I think but if you like semi thriller/detective/humor/absurdity kind of movies, we'll get yourself a bucket of popcorn and have fun!

(English is not my native language)

Let me preface this by saying I was very excited for this movie. I'm into mysteries, I'm into noir, I'm into giallo, I'm into people making things that are ambitious and unpredictable, I'm a sucker for Riley Keough, and I was a pretty big fan of IT FOLLOWS. But, I never could have imagined this...

With this film, David Robert Mitchell has basically solidified his position as the world's new Richard Kelly. IT FOLLOWS was his DONNIE DARKO, and THIS is his SOUTHLAND TALES. Southland Tales is the ONLY movie that I find this truly comparable to.

First, it's strengths: it is astronomically ambitious, unpredictable, and it will go WAY out of it's way to try to be weird. You have to give anyone who is willing to go THAT FAR out on a limb a little bit of credit. But, aside from that, the casting of a few extremely good looking people, and the desire you'll probably feel to continue observing this 2 hour and 20 minute freakshow just to see if the train wreck can get any uglier, the positives end there.

Now, let's just talk about the most painful parts: Garfield's character is impossible to take seriously the majority of the time. His portrayal of a smelly (people bring up how horrible he smells literally every 5 minutes throughout the film) timid weirdo is awkward in the wrong way - reminds me of Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook - you're trying to be a weirdo but it's not working - I see acting, I see trying. Then, he transforms into the Terminator in some really out-of-place sequences that would be really cool if they didn't make such little sense in their placement. Second, this is a movie about Los Angeles that feels like it was made by someone who only knows as much as tourists know about Los Angeles. The locations are all the most cliche L.A. staples, which serve their purpose, but the majority of the characters feel like ignorant caricatures of what outsiders think L.A. people are like: yoga hippies, music producers, prostitutes, but all depthless interpretations with no inspiration - there is one specific "L.A. party" sequence on a downtown rooftop full of bland L.A. actors trying to portray eccentric L.A. people and it's so off base it feels like a rejected Target commercial.

It's clear that this movie wants to be Mulholland Drive, but it lacks the conceptual focus, the effective dreamlike surrealism, and the palpable creativity that make that film so masterful. The "homeless king" clearly wishes he was "the mysterious cowboy", but he's not - his crown looks way too cheap. Under The Silver Lake is full of "totally random" characters, scenarios, and cryptic "clues" that eventually tie into EACH OTHER, but still leave you feeling like they all served no plausible purpose in the end, like connecting a bunch of effects pedals with coupler cables but then having no batteries or AC adapter to power them up with.