I rented Under the Silver Lake on iTunes in the spring of 2019. I usually watch every new movie released on the platform because I like to make discoveries, little jewels that were never released in local theaters. And it was the case with this 2018 film directed by David Robert Mitchell. It was love at first sight, to the point that I felt the need to buy it as a DVD to keep it, just like an art object. I recently watched it again and I wish to share my thoughts on this underrated masterpiece. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it, especially before you read this review, which includes several spoilers.
The plot is way simpler than the movie genuinely is. Yep, Under the Silver Lake is intense, crazy. It follows the trippy wanderings of Sam, played by Andrew Garfield, looking for Sarah, a girl he just met but disappeared, played by Riley Keough. If the story is captivating, a real Russian doll of pop references and mad urban legends, it is the cinematography that attracted me the most. The images are incredible, hypnotic, haunting, unapologetically fun … this movie is a deep, satisfying massage for your right brain.
Under the Silver Lake immediately joined my personal Hollywood trilogy of movies, with Mulholland Drive (2001, directed by David Lynch) and Sunset Boulevard (1950, directed by Billy Wilder). Yes, three films with Los Angeles places as titles, all giving a twisted, dark insight of the movie industry. Sunset Boulevard revealed the misfortune of has-been actors and the sacrifice of a screenwriter. Mulholland Drive revealed the misfortune of aspiring actors and the sacrifice of a director. As for Under the Silver Lake, it reveals the misfortune of Hollywood’s glamour and the sacrifice of a pop culture fan. Taken as a whole, they are illustrating both our fascination for the world of cinema and its grim deception (that never surpass the first one).
Sam, the main character of Silver Lake, doesn’t like to speak about his lack of profession and, in a way, he seems as lost and amnesiac as Mulholland Drive’s character Rita. But contrary to Lynch’s naive heroine, Sam is a looser. He literally stinks because of a skunk encounter and he is facing the same financial problems as Sunset Boulevard’s hero Joe Gillis. When we first discover Sam, we also notice he’s living by a swimming pool, reminding of the famous one of Sunset Boulevard. Fortunately for the Under the Silver Lake hero, only secondary characters will end up floating or dying underwater. He will also make a different choice than Mulholland Drive’s Rita when faced with the Hollywoodian truth; he will accept it and distance himself from it, saving seemingly both his life and his future in the city of Angels. The magic of Tinseltown still can happen for him. As Alice in Wonderland, Sam goes down the rabbit hole but come back to the surface where he sees a poster with the slogan “Hamburgers are love” replacing one with “I see clearly now” on a billboard. Some could see an advice to favor consumerism over truth. But I prefer to read it as Style over Substance, aka Seventh art over woke Hollywood.
In a way, Under the Silver Lake goes beyond Sunset Boulevard and Mulholland Drive in their tribute to the big screen. Yet, we never see studios or crews. The only casting call witnessed is in the background (and probably more linked to prostitution than filmmaking), cinema stars are plaster masks on a collector’s wall and movies only appear on screens, either projected in a cemetery or on Sam’s TV. But you can spot numerous cinematic references on the posters in the hero’s apartment (A Farewell to Arms, Wolfman, Psycho, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula etc.) and in the recreation of classic movie scenes such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window (Sam on his balcony), Kubrick’s The Shining (bathroom scene) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (the empty tomb at the end of the tunnels) as well as Marilyn Monroe’s last movie Something’s Got to Give (Sarah’s pool scene). You can even spot a reference to Winding Refn’s Neon Demon (the songwriter’s house). The tribute seems to come from a fan, not from someone part of the industry which is a refreshing view. The movie also includes cinema in a wider context, the one of pop culture and entertainment, along with music, video games, comics, animation, painting, performance art, advertising and even porn.
David Robert Mitchell plays with codes; strictly speaking as, to find Sarah, Sam will have to decode many clues. But the director also included riddles for his audience both in the movie (Sam’s tees, the dog killer graffiti seen in reverse) and even in the movie poster (can you spot Sam’s face?). The most in-your-face foreshadowing device is of course R.E.M.’s song ‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’. The lyrics both fits the conspiracy theme of the movie and the generational issue described by Sam’s bar buddy, the fact that millennials are craving for the magic that older generations seemed to have lived with (and if you are looking for more movie jokes, just think about Andrew Garfield having his hand glued to a Spiderman comic and being friend with Topher Grace).
The codes of the movie are also those of the Neo Noir, the contemporary version of Film Noir inspired by crime literature such as Raymond Chandler’s books and classic movies such as Polanski’s Chinatown (also a title with a LA area). The main plot of Noir is a private detective suddenly entangled in a dangerous situation involving powerful persons, usually the crazy kind. You can add a femme fatale or a damsel in distress. In Under the Silver Lake, Sam is our cereal box private and Sarah our blonde to rescue (or not). Also, the usual aesthetics of film noir are missing or mocked. Everything dangerous is a red-herring, such as the Owl’s Kiss or the Cult of the Whale (think: Moby Dick style obsession). The many kooky characters punctuating Sam’s quest are intentionally lacking of personality (and of names) and are knowingly or not dissuading him to go on his investigation (just like his friend Allen who asks him “are you sure you want to do that?” during the chess party). Bye bye mystery; the loneliness and voyeurism of Los Angeles are made sublime. Indeed, the only character that matters is actually the city of Los Angeles itself.
Apparently, tourists are (were, let’s put this fact into a post Covid-19 tense) enjoying the sightseeing of locations from movie La La Land. Personally, I would certainly follow an Under the Silver Lake tour instead any time. If you want to spot all the film’s locations, such as the Last Bookstore, check this article of LA Mag.
I mean, during the time of the movie, characters watch a movie in Hollywood Forever’s cemetery, party inside of it (or should I say under it) and even sleep in its grounds. That element only makes that Under the Silver Lake is my favorite movie as I am a huge cemetery lover. Why? Because it is at the same time gothic, bucolic and full of stories. For David Robert Mitchell though, it goes beyond a mysterious exterior location. Indeed, what is Hollywood Forever other than a bunch of tombs for rich and famous people set under Los Angeles? Yes, it mirrors the tombs that Sam discovers in the tunnels where mogul Jefferson Sevence, who drives the same car as Gary Cooper, has bought himself an afterlife. Death is central in the movie, so does the famous LA burial ground. It is also the place where Sam comes face to face with his mother’s idol, silent film actress Janet Gaynor and where icon of Noir Hitchcock is making a witty appearance after his death, in the scene where the hero meets the Shooting Stars girls for the first time.
The Silver Lake of the title is oddly absent. This neighborhood of millennial hipsters is only used for its reservoirs and by the Comic Man (played by Patrick Fischler), who pretends that it was cursed by a failed actor, jealous of the success of dog actors, a story that may have influenced the Dog Killer. This underlying arc of the narration is visible through graffiti, lost dog posters, nightmares and drug induced visions as well as the hero’s backstory with a former girlfriend, which he finds again thanks to another canid, a coyote. The hobo king wonders if Sam could be the Dog Killer and even if Sam’s story is convincing, a doubt is persisting, especially as the mystery remains unsolved.
Who is the Dog Killer? 
Barking Feminists?
Dogs are mirroring girls in the movie. They both bark (yes) and get lost. If dogs are killed to avenge a failed actor, girls are lured into prostitution through lousy acting gigs. The female actress friend of Sam is obviously working in the porn industry, while the girls he met are all escorts. For them, getting in movies is a way to meet a millionaire, just like in Sarah’s favorite movie, How to Marry a Millionaire (1956). They could also end up alone in their room, crying in front of the drone camera of their voyeuristic neighbor. This scene is not pointless at all, as it makes a parallel with the end of the movie, when Sam sees Sarah in a room via a video call, hiding the fact that she’s crying. All the young female characters, even if nothing happen to them in front of the camera, seem to be facing a dark future.
Riley Keough as Sarah 
Grace Van Patten is the magnetic Balloon Girl 
India Menuez (center) and Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney (right)
Let’s get Freudian. The movie starts with Sam checking out his topless older neighbor, while his mother calls him on the phone to tell him about a Janet Gaynor movie. Then, Sam chooses to seduce a younger woman instead, founding himself into hot water. At the end of the movie, Sam finally sees the movie sent by his mother and starts a relationship with his older neighbor. Suddenly, it is as if the adventure in between those two scenes was just a parenthesis, a dream, a pop fiction, avoiding him a hinted suicide and providing a solution to his financial problems. Is Under the Silver Lake a plea for mature lovers? Well, Sam’s aged neighbor owns parrots instead of dogs and he looks happy. Let’s hope for him that she is not a crazy former actress looking for a screenwriter to revive her career… after all, the swimming pool is still around.
Jen Ripper Gori 
Great article! Under the Silver Lake was a fantastic movie!
J’aimeJ’aime
Thanks, glad you like it!
J’aimeJ’aime