‘Under the Silver Lake’ Trailer: It’s Time to Lay Film Noir to Rest ~ Cinenus

When conventional genre throwbacks just look like tired wannabes.

Is there a more adored genre amongst filmmakers than film noir? The works of John Huston, Fritz Lang, and Orson Welles sunk their claws into USC brains a long time ago. Anyone who has lost themselves to that era of cinema totally understands why. The long shadows and leggy femme fatales are nearly impossible to shake once they’ve cast their spell over you. It’s a beautiful, boozy high.

Every Noirvember, I’m ready to hashtag my month away. It’s what movie maniacs do. Film noir is intoxicating, but despite how hard we may try to revive its seductive charms, it’s a genre steeped in a time and a place. Maybe we should just leave it there.

I present the latest from David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) as evidence for this suggestion. Under the Silver Lake is a neo-noir nipping on the heels of Inherent Vice and stars Andrew Garfield, who meets Riley Keough splashing around in a motel pool. After she seemingly vanishes off the face of the Earth, Garfield goes full Sam Spade.

Watch the new trailer:

I’ve learned to put my faith in A24. Rarely have they steered me down a dark path without redemption. Mitchell’s clever unwinding of the slasher film with It Follows resulted in an incredibly entertaining ride. That alone will get me in the door. My ticket was purchased before I pressed play on the trailer. Stumbling into the Los Angelas underworld, Garfield is the perfect modern male trapped in an adored yet ancient film category. It’s easy to imagine his puppy dog tail tripping him up while navigating skeptical detectives and mob goon heavies. Garfield is certainly a lot less doped up than Joaquin Phoenix’s stoner P.I. in Inherent Vice, but the two share a bumbling stature that underscores how out of their element they truly are. Basically, they’re the perfect saps for a film noir plot. I s that the noir hero we need in 2018, though? We’ve already seen Jack Nicholson (Chinatown), Gene Hackman (Night Moves), William Hurt (Body Heat), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick), and even Jason Statham (Crank parts 1 & 2) walk in Humphrey Bogart’s footsteps. Why do we continually focus our attention on the chumps of the genre? They’re idiots, and if I could steal a line from a classic noir, “I wouldn’t give them the skin off a grape.” I’m ready to put the femme fatales on the pedestal they deserve. Let’s champion the women who put the wool over the dolts’ eyes. Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor, Gloria Graham, and Rita Hayworth were the real rock stars of the genre. Put Andrew Garfield in the shadows and bring Riley Keough into the well-positioned lamp light. Maybe that’s what Mitchell has in store for us. It Follows flipped the script on the “final girl” trope. Perhaps he means to do the same thing for the film noir genre with Under the Silver Lake. This trailer doesn’t make it look revolutionary, though. Instead, what I see is another film in love with other films. The snake is eating its own tail, and I would think it’s stuffed on imitation already.

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Cinenus

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Thursday, 22 March 2018