Under the Silver Lake
U.S.A. 2018

Opening 6 Dec 2018

Directed by: David Robert Mitchell
Writing credits: David Robert Mitchell
Principal actors: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace, Deborah Geffner, Riki Lindhome

Sam (Andrew Garfield) notices Sarah (Riley Keogh) swimming in the apartment complex pool and manages to meet her. After spending a few hours with her he discovers she has moved out in the middle of the night and becomes obsessed with finding out why and where she went, probably because he has nothing better to do than sit on his balcony watching the neighbors.

This ostensibly suspense film is anything but. Rather, it is a grab bag, a film styled with nods to suspense, horror, film noir and, remotely, code-breaking intrigue. The result is a real mess of a film with no cohesion and making no sense. His search leads down some strange paths, none of which go anywhere. Suspense is usually built by a sequence of clues leading to a resolution, but this is just a series of unrelated events and the conclusion of his search is reached by a freak occurrence more than anything else.  Should one find some satisfaction in the existential explanation for Sarah’s disappearance, do not overlook that those departing have not failed to equip their tomb with many of those pointless acquisitions.  The best explanation of this movie is summed up when Sam asks his neighbor what her bird is saying and she says she doesn’t know. I don’t know why anyone wasted time and money making this movie, and I don’t know why I didn’t follow my urges to get up and walk out. (Anne Crocker)