Anika Begay
The big picture
- You from West
MaXXXina
and David Robert Mitchell
Under the Silver Lake
explores the dark side of Hollywood, with mysterious assassins and conspiracies plaguing the ambitious protagonists. - Both films feature violence and paranoia, with real antagonists and different motivations in the two.
- Despite their differences, both films reveal the darkness that lies beneath Hollywood’s glamorous facade, making them perfect companions for exploring the sinister side of fame and ambition.
You Westernerthe new slasher A24 MaXXXina brings X starring Maxine Minx (My Gothic) returns to our big screens. This time, the rising starlet is seeking fame in the context of the real-life Night Stalker’s reign of terror in 1985 Los Angeles. As Maxine’s friends begin to fall apart (apparently thanks to Night Stalker), she begins receiving suspicious communications from a mysterious source. Unhappy with the prospect of involving the police, Maximinushe embarks on his own investigation to get to the bottom of everything. The peril of her investigation follows her through a variety of Los Angeles landmarks, from Mann’s Chinese Theater (as it was called at the time) to studio backlots and the top of the Hollywood Hills. The film is a perfect companion piece to another A24 metafiction about shady goings-on in the heart of Hollywood… David Robert MitchellA24 stoner noir by Under the Silver Lake.
As MaXXXina, Under the Silver Lake similarly presents a Los Angeles under threat from a mysterious assassin (in this case the Dog Killer) and plagued by the disappearances of young women (although with a very different resolution). The film follows Sam (Andrea Garfield), an unambitious protagonist like Maxine, until he falls in love (read: becomes obsessed) with his new neighbor Sarah (Riley Keough). When Sarah disappears, Sam embarks on a journey that takes him into the dark underbelly of Los Angeles, in an obsessive search for the truth. It’s an engaging, sometimes surreal journey.fueled by subtle Hollywood nostalgia and growing paranoiathe other side to MaXXXinaa personal exploration of Hollywood excess.
Under the Silver Lake
Sam, a disenchanted young man, finds a mysterious woman swimming in his apartment pool one night. The next morning, the woman disappears. Sam sets out for Los Angeles to find her and along the way uncovers a far more bizarre conspiracy.
- Release date
- June 21, 2018
- Director
- David Robert Mitchell
- Duration
- 140
Beware the Dog Killer in “Under the Silver Lake”
In Under the Silver Lakeit’s clear from the first moment that something’s wrong with Sam. He’s a slacker and a charmer (he is Andrew Garfield, after all) who spends his time spying on his somewhat nudist neighbor. He’s strangely concerned about the dog killer, wants to contact the author of a local comic book about the devil, and (oddly) always carries dog treats with him despite not actually owning a dog. When he leaves Sarah’s apartment after watching the Marilyn Monroe classic How to Marry a MillionaireSam catches a group of kids vandalizing neighborhood cars, including scratching a vulgar image on his. It’s a nice car, sure, but Sam attacks the kids, punching them repeatedly and even kicking one to the ground, and you can see the anger on his face… it’s a shockingly violent pivot for the characterfollowed by a surreal and violent dream in which a Sarah-like person chews on a corpse while barking like a dog. The film never makes this entirely clear, but a popular theory is that Sam himself may actually be the feared dog killer.
Sam and Sarah had plans for the next day, but to his surprise, he finds her missing without a trace, triggering a paranoid investigation that leads Sam to trendy rooftop shows, screenings at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, underground tunnels, secret codes in video game maps and mass media, and a strange cult among the extremely wealthy that is connected to Shooting Star Escorts, an escort service that promises to connect its wealthy clients with “Hollywood’s up-and-coming Ingenues!” Sarah was connected to Shooting Star Escorts and It’s the reason why it disappeared from the face of the Earth. Under the Silver LakeHollywood’s vision is of a playground for nefarious, rich and powerful players who actively work to control the world through intentional media manipulation and who claim the lives of starry-eyed young women (albeit in surprising ways). If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because it shares a clear kinship with what’s actually happening in MaXXXinaalthough it is a sort of reverse version of the events of that film.
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What really makes it Under the Silver Lake an underrated modern classic is its specific way of updating classic noir tropes. While Sam is not the feared Dog Killer, he is at best a miserable, morally compromised detective. He’s an obsessive, fiscally irresponsible Peeping Tom, who most likely starts following the detective’s trail because he has a crush on his cute blonde neighbor. The fact that there seems to be a massive conspiracy here isn’t because he’s brilliant, it’s just a happy side effect of a weird obsessive being obsessively weird about a girl. Otto Preminger‘S Laura, a stunningly beautiful noir, centered on a detective who falls in love with the murdered executive at the center of his case. Alfred Hitchcock‘S Vertigo sees investigator “Scotty” Ferguson (James Stewart) become obsessed with the mysterious blonde he is investigating. Nicolas Winding Refnhis splendid neo-noir Guide see Italian actressThe mysterious getaway driver is driven to violence to protect his beautiful and sweet blonde neighbor (Carey Mulligan’s Wife), While Biagio Antonacci‘S Sunset Boulevard follows a shady insurance salesman (Fred Mac Murray, Fred’s son) driven to murder by his obsession with a woman, Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). Under the Silver Lake It’s an excellent continuation of the Morally compromised noir protagonist strangely obsessed with the blonde pipeline, made fresh by its ties to the darkest elements of Hollywood and coated with the natural and boundless charm of Andrew Garfield.
Two stories of a Los Angeles terrorized and governed by a conspiracy
There are several similarities that cross the hearts of both Under the Silver Lake AND MaXXXinaStylistically, Both films are actually rather unusual film noirs.each with a critical and nostalgic attitude towards classic Hollywood. MaXXXina is the story of a young starlet trying to get her big break in the mainstream, but while she loves the limelight, there’s always a downside to the dream and a seedy atmosphere that pervades Hollywood. Here, the beautiful blonde starlet AND the morally compromised investigator in the city’s seedy underbelly, skirting the law and seeking the truth on her own terms. She’s a sex-positive, fame-seeking, cocaine-snorting, tough-as-nails starlet who will literally crush her opponents under her heel, an investigator straight out of the noir biz. When we learn the details about the film’s real villains, the only reason the young women are victims is because of their vulnerability in 1985 Los Angeles. Here, it’s a place where money and bright lights reign, and the most conspicuous of the 1% walk the streets alongside pimps, drug dealers and thieves…but it is the first one that should be most wary of.
Likewise, Under the Silver LakeThe Hollywood Journey features plenty of classic entertainment, posters, iconography and young, excited, hopeful starlets, but Behind the glamour is a cult of rich men who contract with an extremely shady escort service for nefarious purposes. There’s also the matter of a full-blown decades-long conspiracy to infest all of pop culture with peacemaking messages (a plan straight out of John Carpenter‘S they live), so there’s clearly something rotten in Hollywood. It’s another crucial reminder not to trust the rich and powerful, a favorite theme in many noir and neo-noir entries (perhaps nowhere more famously than in Roman Polanski‘S Chinese city). Once again Under the Silver Lake finds a unique voice in the genre, as we are following a possible serial killer of man’s best friend and yet, somehow, Sam is not the creepiest person audiences encounter in the film.. It’s a gripping riff on another related noir theme: some investigations are so corrupt, dangerous, or heinous that a morally perfect hero isn’t the right person for the job. Instead, a morally gray protagonist may be needed to get to the bottom of the matter.
Each film features a protagonist with a penchant for violence who embarks on a ruthless investigation into the terrorized underbelly of Hollywood, uncover a conspiracy that manipulates sex workers, serves the richand attempts to use the media to disempower the masses. At the same time, there are significant differences between the films. Maxine doesn’t kill out of some evil impulse (unlike what drives Sam to kill dogs, if he is indeed the dog killer). Rather, Maxine’s ambition puts her in the crosshairs of dangerous people, and she won’t think twice about killing her way through those obstacles. Furthermore, the conspiracies of Under the Silver Lake are orchestrated by powerful Hollywood cultural actors towards one’s own self-aggrandizement (so as not to reveal too much). In MaXXXina (again, not to give too much away), there are very different motivations at play. The nature of these films’ final antagonists and the fates of their young women may differ, but both films are excellent A24 noir hybrids that reveal the darkness beneath the bright lights of the Hollywood marquee. X Perhaps MaXXXinaimmediate precursor, but Under the Silver Lake It’s the perfect flipside to his neon-lit killer coin.
Under the Silver Lake It is available for rent on Amazon in the United States
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