"Under the Silver Lake" works up until its payoff, which feels flat and uninspired. Nevertheless, David Robert Mitchell is a hell of a filmmaker, his work here with DP Mike Gioulakis is fantastic.

Andrew Garfield shines in 'It Follows' writer-director David Robert Mitchell's much-anticipated and very funny modern noir.

Films like this about slow-burn conspiracies that take ages to unravel their cheeky premises rarely live up to all the work that goes into watching them get there, and Under the Silver Lake is no different... But maybe the resolution isn't the point.

Oddly shaped, oddly profound, and full of fascinating (or, equally, frustrating) flaws, Mitchell's idiosyncratic shaggy-dog story is destined to become a warts-and-all cult favourite.

It's a lot to process - I think it may be a modern masterpiece? Who knows. The parrot has the answers, but good luck making out what it's trying to say.

It's no Mulholland Drive, but the point of Under the Silver Lake rhymes with themes from David Lynch's masterpiece: that lifetimes of watching others has instructed us in how to be watched ourselves.

[David] Robert Mitchell astutely manages the tension through a tight use of black humor and the mystery of horror movies... [Full review in Spanish]

Under the Silver Lake lacks the calamitous hilarity of its predecessors, but Mitchell occasionally digs up gold as his protagonist delves around Hollywood.

[Director] David Robert Mitchell shows his cards from the beginning of the show, films brilliantly, has inspired moments but the enterprise exceeds it. [Full review in Spanish]

It's a fantasy, yes, but it's not toxic like those found in many of the revered texts that inspired it. Perhaps Mitchell's real sin was having the temerity of amending the canon.

Nothing in the film would work if Andrew Garfield weren't flat-out tremendous...

A very curious proposal... [Full review in Spanish]

Mitchell is taking a big swing with his third feature, trying something not just new but also more unconventional, ambitious, and even potentially off-putting.

It's fascinating to watch Mitchell grasp for a bigger picture with the wild ambition of his scruffy protagonist.

If the destination ultimately proves a little less satisfying than the trip, Mitchell and his collaborators fill us with so many moody reveries that we succumb to its warped logic and indelible vividness.