Under the Silver Lake Movie Review

Under the Silver Lake (2018)

Rent Under the Silver Lake on Amazon Video
Written by: David Robert Mitchell
Directed by: David Robert Mitchell
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Sam, a disenchanted young man, finds a mysterious woman swimming in his apartment's pool one night. The next morning, she disappears and Sam sets off across LA to find her, uncovering a conspiracy far more bizarre.

Verdict
This has a great concept. Messages are hidden throughout pop culture, but the reasons why and for whom aren't developed. Sam's able to solve these clues almost at random. You can't play along at home as they clues are so vague. There isn't a solid through line and there is no reason for the clues to exist other than to provide a plot for this movie.
Skip it.

Review
I wondered if the clues were vague and random because Sam was going to be delusional, but that isn't the case. The movie throws in so many conspiracy theories and the foundation just isn't there.

 

Sam is living in an apartment he can't afford with a car that's close to being repossessed. He's presenting an illusion. Maybe this ties with the larger mystery, but if there is a link I didn't see it. It certainly feels like there should be a link between Sam, the rich, and the mystery.

Sam meets a girl who disappears the next day. Her apartment is completely empty. He wants to find her and begins searching for clues when he can't find answers directly.
Sam follows another girl who retrieves something from the apartment. He sees a message on a scoreboard in the neighborhood which felt like proof Sam might be delusional. He then follows the trail to various rich people parties.

It just feels like the movie dumped everything in. Rich people hide messages in pop culture from magazines to music and even cereal boxes. Why? It's not for Sam. Other rich people aren't looking through the media for clues. The mystery underneath the conspiracy is that rich people are building modern day tombs akin to Egyptian pyramids to ascend. It's sounds ridiculous because it is. If this movie made these connections between conspiracies and pop culture this could be great, but what we get feels like a jumble.

 

At one point Sam meets up with an underground comic artist that's crazier than Sam. The artist buys into all the conspiracy theories. His only point seems to be giving Sam a crucial piece of the puzzle. I thought this person might make Sam question his own journey, but he doesn't. Sam solving the mystery is completely improbable. The movie stretches belief the longer it continues. There's even a twist thrown in for good measure.

My favorite scene involves Sam discovering "the songwriter." For the last fifty or more years this guy has written all the popular songs and slipped messages into them. I don't know why, there isn't a reason for it, but it's such a cool idea. Like most of the ideas in this movie, they're thrown in without being fully developed.