«Under the Silver Lake - skunk, wank, smoke: a good recipe!

Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) - Thierry Fivaz

Under the silver lake is a tribute to American cinema and popular culture. Presented as part of the international competition at NIFFF, it's a film as strange as it is amusing; a real treasure hunt with an endearing idiot.

With Under the silver lake, director David Robert Mitchell treats us to a completely off-the-wall film in which we follow, right in the heart of Los Angeles, a disoriented young man searching for a missing girl he met the night before. For his third feature film, Mitchell has concocted a truly strange dish; mix a pinch of The Da Vinci Code, from Hitchcock-style thrillers, humor, and pop culture to a solid Lynchian foundation, and you'll get Under the silver lake, a completely crazy movie, but honestly really fun.

Screened on Friday, July 6, and Thursday, July 12, for its Swiss premiere at the NIFFF, Under the silver lake takes us on a treasure hunt through a glitzy Los Angeles. This hunt is led by Sam (Andrew Garfield), an unemployed guy who spends his days doing nothing—except when he’s peering through binoculars at his neighbor’s ample cleavage. Viewers will recognize the tongue-in-cheek nod to Courtyard window; offbeat nods that, incidentally, punctuate Mitchell’s entire film and make it clear right from the start that this isn’t meant to be taken seriously.

The mystery that Sam, an amateur detective, will find himself embroiled in involves tracking down Sarah (Riley Keough), a beautiful young woman he met the day before who mysteriously disappears, leaving behind strange symbols. Just like in film noir, Sam will then investigate to find her. This investigation will take him to strange and seedy places, infested with hippies and rich kids, and lead him to believe that the world he lives in is surrounded by secret signs that only insiders would be able to decode. A parallel universe, running parallel to our own—in short, a real slap in the face to conspiracy theories and the like. fake news that many crazy people are spreading these days.

Under the silver lake blends genres and draws on cinema as well as popular culture, music, and New Age. By daring to cram Super Mario, an absurd doggy-style scene, the Emerald City from *The Wizard of Oz*, and cat masks all into the same movie, you’re left not quite knowing where to look. But this undoubtedly lends a certain charm to the film, which—though it drags a bit at times—is completely zany and a joy to watch. It’s impossible not to laugh at Sam’s foolishness and the borderline absurd situations he finds himself in. An investigation that, in the end, will even reveal to him the secrets behind the biggest hits of our time! In fact, once the movie is over, you’ll have only one desire: to go (re)listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

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Write to the author: thierry.fivaz@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © NIFFF