“The fog is thick in Under the Silver Lake—but it’s neither the funk of pot smoke (though there is some of that) nor bad weather. Rather, it’s the confusion located somewhere behind Andrew Garfield’s brow. His character, Sam, prowls the streets like a Scooby-less Shaggy in search of answers to a riddle he only half comprehends.
“We’re in Los Angeles, because of course we are. The secret-history-of-L.A. movie, burrowing under the city’s sunny haze to an underlying meanness, has a long and glorious history. Under the Silver Lake sets up Sam as just another sleepy guy in line at the coffee shop, the laid-back Cali-pop perfection of the Association’s 'Never My Love' completing his morning mood.
“Hypnotic, spiraling and deliriously high on its own supply of amateur-sleuth–movie references, writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s deeply personal follow-up to his relentless meta-horror film It Follows vaults him into Big Lebowski territory, by way of several Lynchian side streets. It’s the kind of raggedy-ass thriller that only happens when a young filmmaker, emboldened by success, throws away discipline, hoping to summon the full, meandering spell of a paranoid nightmare.” - Time Out