David Robert Mitchell's largely overlooked and misunderstood Pynchonoiresque surreal murder mystery Under the Silver Lake (2018) is a great meditation on what happens when life plans go wrong. In the film Los Angeles acts as a stage on which hopes, disappointment and mysterious forces are played out (think Mulholland Drive (2001), The Long Goodbye (1973), Inherent Vice (2015)). What is different in Under the Silver Lake is reality becomes such a jarringly absurd caricature of itself, it's as if our protagonist's own internal conflict is becoming manifest.
Life plans can orient us, they provide us with a framework within which we can reconcile the world with what we care about. One obvious way they can go wrong though, is when life doesn't go according to plan. Another is that they can cause us to shut ourselves off from other opportunities. Of particular philosophical interest is how sometimes what we cared about can turn out not to be something we care about. What do we do when we've lost our orientation? Particularly when we're not sure what we care about anymore? From what vantage point can we evaluate our values? Did we really care all along or did we just think we did?
Philosophy
Probe the philosophical questions raised by some of cinema’s most intriguing films with Showroom Cinema and the University of Sheffield.
Director David Robert Mitchell
Year 2018
Duration
2h 19m
Language English
Cast Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough, Topher Grace