Under The Silver Lake [Blu-ray] [2019]

Imagine if someone remade The Big Lebowski and took out all the humour and made it two and half hours long...then you’d have “Inherent Vice” now imagine if you took out the great cast from that film and all the cool scenes from it. Then you have Under the Silver Lake

As if convinced of it's own importance the running time of Under the Silver Lake is an interminable two hours and nineteen minutes, and with a central character so relentlessly objectionable it feels longer still. The plot, such as it is, revolves around an apathetic thirty-something searching for the woman he habitually peeped-at while she used the communal pool at their apartment complex, suddenly her rooms are vacated and our hero decides she needs to be found.The film is centred on the male perspective, the type who thinks owning a Nirvana poster is countercultural, most of the supporting characters are seen fairly briefly and we find them either sleazy or trivial, or both, and some appear with an array of outlandish quirks as if loaned to the project by David Lynch. The artful veneer of the film soon wears thin however as the all too familiar traits of our male lead become apparent: sexual bravado, casual violence, and the obligatory gun/car fetish.Before the full pretentiousness of Under the Silver Lake becomes clear, the musical score bursts forth as if from a different film, or part of a dream sequence, but to our amazement the cartoon style accompaniment follows the action like a flock of angry geese.If we find ourselves able to forgive the various structural inadequacies of the film, we might not be so charitable when we consider the treatment of women. The female characters are sexually available and disposable, and we don't even manage to find names for two of the parts, the cast list states only 'actress' and 'topless bird lady'.Festooned with disagreeable clichés that loom as depressingly familiar as a jaunty fedora, Under the Silver Lake is not by any measure the original work it pretends to be, we're simply treading old ground in new boots, very slowly.

If you're not watching this film, you're missing out on a masterpiece of storytelling and fantastic visual engagment. Brilliant acting by Garfield as an aimless but obsessive resident of Silverlake who unravels the darker side of Los Angele's entertainment industry in a pre-Harvey Weinstein era but viewed through a 2019 lens. This is the anti-La La Land. Many developing plots lines that do and do not receive a full payoff, but in "reality" the audience is just along for the ride through the character's series of nightmares, explorations and female encounters across The City of Angles.

I watched this twice in 24hrs as initially I had mixed feelings. There is a lot going on in this film. I loved the music and atmospheric feel and quirky little touches. It's a weird one. I liked it a lot and I would watch it again. The story isn't as complicated as it initially feels, it's surreal and the whole setting is very noir-ish. Gratuitous Andrew Garfield nudity slightly distracts...Yes I am a fan...but he plays this part well! There's a funny little nod to his past role as Spidey at one point. The film claims to be a criticism of "the male gaze" but I'm not sure if they have succeeded in getting that message across. If you like secret codes and urban myths with a heady dose of pastel coloured Californian escapism you will like this!

I loved this movie. The music soundtrack is so evocative. Instead of using 'contemporary' music the filmmakers opt for a full-blown orchestral score in the style of the old Holywood classic noir movies, this adds immensely to a mind shift by the viewer, it builds an atmosphere of mystery; danger and intrigue. I do feel that if you are fairly new to classic movies then you will not get the references throughout. If Alfred Hitchcock was a hipster he would have made this movie. Highly recommended.

Not all kinds of films are for everyone, I personally appreciate bold, out-of-the-box films. Perhaps not worthy of five stars, I just want as many people to go into this with an open mind as possible. People who watch 30 minutes of a film then leave a one-star review are the worst. Great commentary on the poisonous nature of hollywood, how evil it is, and a great exploration of paranoia and the need to find meaning. Not amazing narratively.

No story, nothing interesting at all. Every now and then some aspiring starlet gets her tits out but apart from that we are left wondering why we paid 4.99 to rent it. Stuck it out for 30 mins or so to see if anything actually happened but no. Obviously I'm not 'with it' enough to join in. Don't bother.

This film has some good visual moments but tries too hard to out-lynch David Lynch. Lots of naked women arbitarily thrown in gives is an outdated sexist edge and is basically boring and long. I love surreal (Jodorowski, Raoul Ruiz, Lynch) but this misses the mark.