At times Under The Silver Lake can be funny, charming and captivating yet is littered with nearly unwatchable and boring moments. A film that is centred around mystery should be intense but most of the time I watched this film I felt so disconnected to the characters and ideas presented in this movie that I just felt bored. Under The Silver Lake shines from time to time showing random glimmers of genius writing but those moments are few and far between.
The camera work is phenomenal and this film is probably one of the most beautiful pieces of cinema I've seen this decade. I also thought the pacing was awful, the movie felt like it was an hour longer than it actually was and at times I found myself asking when this roller coaster of a film would end. Though I found all the characters either very unlikeable or just uninteresting I believe the cast put in a good amount of effort and did give me a reason to continue watching the film. The setting, colouring and cinematography were fantastic! Hell on a technical level this film was incredible and it even had a fantastic score! Yet the story and characters really lacked! Sam is one of the most unlikeable characters I've seen in a film this year and his motivations seem so unclear to me that it's hard to understand or being invested in his investigation/mission.
I basically felt like I was watching this awkward, creepy, unlikeable dude go nuts over something that I thought I understood until the film got tossed off track again and again and again. Normally I love investigative films but I think this movie just fails on so many levels that I just couldn't get into it. You could tell at times that a lot of work was put into creating this crazy movie but other times it felt like the writing would just get lazy and that's when I'd lose even more interest!
As a huge fan of It Follows I did like that this movie definitely felt unique and a lot different compared to that film. That does give me a lot of hope for future work from David Robert Mitchell! Also, Andrew Garfield definitely did a great job with his performance. My friend said "it's a giant puzzle that needs to be put together" and I understand why people would love this movie for that reason but I felt so disconnected to the film that I just stopped caring about solving the puzzle and that was the moment Under The Silver Lake lost me.
At the end of the day Under The Silver Lake has some great moments and is nearly a technological masterpiece but the story and characters lack. These characters seem to lack emotion and depth at times and this story is just confusing or uninteresting. Though this movie clearly had a ton of potential, for me it just ended up being a mess. Entertaining at times but more boring than not. I'd still recommend everyone to watch this movie just for the camera work and visual aspect alone!
Rating: 6.7/10
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