After the existential teen horror film IT FOLLOWS, David Robert Mitchell became one of the hottest genre directors on the market. UNDER THE SILVER LAKE is still an independent production, but this time it has a start in the leading role. Andrew Garfield plays youngish creep Sam, who claims to be a writer but actually sits in his hollywood apartment with his binoculars staring at women at the pool or in their apartments. There‘s a whiff of REAR WINDOW at the start of Mitchell‘s film, when Sam‘s lusty gaze sees a blonde woman who just moved in. He uses her lapdog to make contact with the object of his desire, and even though there are signs warning against a dog killer everywhere, he succeeds in having a tête a tête with the beautiful Sarah. Before things get hot and heavy the two of them are disrupted by her two roommates. The next morning, Sarah and her roommate‘s apartment is empty. Sam begins searching for them and stumbles upon a network of signs that portend a complex conspiracy.

An uncertain nasty, perverse moment holds the tension and enjoyment of UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, but the film feels like someone had to cook up a postmodern script and found one in an old seminar folder. A bit of THE LADY VANISHES here, a bit of REAR WINDOW there, a lot of MULLHOLLAND DRIVE, and a pinch of THEY LIVE. UNDER THE SILVER LAKE also seems to be a commentary on the Harvey Weinstein affair and male power in Hollywood. Mitchell‘s new film goes against the many expectations that were put on him after IT FOLLOWS and presents a bizarre paranoid thriller that will probably have just as many fans as it does haters.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy