“Under The Silver Lake” – The Songwriter
I don’t ever want to shit on fellow filmmakers who are clearly shooting for the stars, and pouring all of their ideas into an ambitiously epic follow-up to their universally celebrated previous feature. It can pay off, case in point Paul Thomas Anderson cashing in on the goodwill of “Boogie Nights” with his 3 hour melodrama “Magnolia.” For David Robert Mitchell, it did not work out. Well, at least for me. I saw some of the worst films I’ve ever witnessed this year: “Serenity” and “Cats” were full throttle disasters with major studio cash at their disposal, and “Jojo Rabbit” is the very definition of a movie that is “not quite my tempo,” but nothing was egregiously smug and convinced of its own brilliance as “Under the Silver Lake.” It’s the kind of film that’s so deeply unlikeable and failed by its own ambitions, it could only come from the mind of a director who is genuinely talented enough to try something this misconceived. It’s an endurance test, but one that also packs a late scene that almost makes up for everything that came before it. A scene that hints at what could have been, or maybe what went over my head for most of its runtime. I don’t think I’d ever want to revisit “Under the Silver Lake,” but this scene is impossible to dismiss.
I don’t ever want to shit on fellow filmmakers who are clearly shooting for the stars, and pouring all of their ideas into an ambitiously epic follow-up to their universally celebrated previous feature. It can pay off, case in point Paul Thomas Anderson cashing in on the goodwill of “Boogie Nights” with his 3 hour melodrama “Magnolia.” For David Robert Mitchell, it did not work out. Well, at least for me. I saw some of the worst films I’ve ever witnessed this year: “Serenity” and “Cats” were full throttle disasters with major studio cash at their disposal, and “Jojo Rabbit” is the very definition of a movie that is “not quite my tempo,” but nothing was egregiously smug and convinced of its own brilliance as “Under the Silver Lake.” It’s the kind of film that’s so deeply unlikeable and failed by its own ambitions, it could only come from the mind of a director who is genuinely talented enough to try something this misconceived. It’s an endurance test, but one that also packs a late scene that almost makes up for everything that came before it. A scene that hints at what could have been, or maybe what went over my head for most of its runtime. I don’t think I’d ever want to revisit “Under the Silver Lake,” but this scene is impossible to dismiss.
Special shout out to Clint Eastwood’s 1996 Olympic bombing thriller “Richard Jewell,” which not only cracked my best of the year list but also sees Eastwood operating at his most economic and empathetic. Much like last years underrated “The Mule,” the film is surprisingly funny and accidentally timely for reasons Eastwood might not have intended. But one of the most unforgettable moments is early on the film at the ‘96 Olympics when Eastwood allows a scene featuring a crowd of thousands dancing to the “Macarena” to play out in near entirety. Imagining Eastwood directing this scene gave me more pleasure than most films in 2019.
