Movie of the Year? Of the decade? David Robert Mitchell's UNDER THE SILVER LAKE

Thoroughly dividing critics and audiences alike (on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a score of 56% from the critics, 60% from the audience), UNDER THE SILVER LAKE has given TrustMovies his most all-out enjoyable cinema experience of the year so far. Now out on home video -- Bluray, DVD and digital -- this is a film I think you really must give a shot.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, shown at right, whose earlier efforts The Myth of the American Sleepover (one of the best and most graceful and surprising teen movies I've seen) and It Follows (a somewhat over-rated horror effort that proved at least original and had a very good first half), this one is Mitchell's best so far, and I wager that the 44-year-old filmmaker has a lot more to give us in his time ahead.

What makes Under the Silver Lake so special? A whole lot of things, starting with its Los Angeles/Silver Lake reservoir locale. I grew up around there and so know it well, and the movie made me feel simultaneously at home and as though, just like its hero, I'd fallen into a rabbit hole leading to wonderland.

Whether by choice or instinct, Mr. Mitchell consistently butts up the ordinary against the bizarre. Realistic details lead to anything but, while the fantastic ends up in something utterly mundane. (My favorite moment is the long, mysterious tunnel that leads our hero to a... nah: You gotta find out for yourself.) The effect is alternately alarming and delightful -- and consistently amusing. I had a smile on my face almost throughout.

Watching Under the Silver Lake is like discovering David Lynch on antidepressants and in a very good mood. Sure, this movie deals with everything from awful cults to a dog murderer on the loose, and still that smile refuses to leave your face. This also has to do with the wonderful young actor Mitchell has cast as his lead: Andrew Garfield (two photos up and below).

Since Boy A, back in 2007, I think I've seen every movie Garfield has made, and even when I thought the film mostly sucked (Silence), he never did. What a face this guy has. Those huge and immersive big-brown-eyes draw you in and hold you in thrall, and the actor is versatile enough to try all kinds of roles. His lean, lithe body, which we see just about all of in the course of the movie, is a big bonus, too. Mr. Garfield appears in, I believe, every scene of this movie, and -- to paraphrase one of his best films -- he never lets you go.

The actor plays Sam, a not particularly likeable, aging young man -- 33 and seeming to have not the least idea what to do with his, so far, pointless little life -- who spots a pretty blond named Sarah (Riley Keough, below) poolside in his apartment complex, and quickly gets to know -- and fuck -- her very briefly before, the next morning, she has disappeared, along with literally everything (almost) that was in her apartment the night before. Hmmmm... mystery.

The rest of the movie is devoted to Sam's relentless search for Sarah, which leads him into one bizarre situation after another. These grows loonier and tunier, finally culminating in a kind of wonderful closure during which Mitchell gives us his moral -- which could not be simpler nor more profound. This moral ends, if I am not mistaken, with the word "right?" and if I am also not mistaken, our hero hears this and actually considers it.
(We all should, by the way.)

Mitchell's denouement is as lovely and rich as what has come before, featuring sex, a parrot, and in the very last shot a quietly unobtrusive reference to another shot we've seen several times previous and which now suddenly resonates quite differently -- because it has happened to someone we care about. Mitchell doesn't spell any of this out, however. But it's there nonetheless (unless I am way off base in my conclusions, but I would prefer to think not).

For me this writer/director has made a marvelous kind of scavenger/Easter-egg hunt in which we -- and Sam-- really do find the prize. Other critics have suggested that there is no "there" there, but I think they are dead wrong. Were they asleep? But how could they be at a movie that is this much fun?

Along the way, there are so damned many visual and audio treats -- sets that zing, music that sings, fashions that will make you oooh, aaah and giggle -- that you'll probably want to see the whole thing again, just to be able to finally take it all in. (Janet Gaynor fans will plotz.)

For the many movie references alone -- from Pitfall and Land of the Pharaohs to Something's Got to Give -- film buffs will enjoy things, but if you're not inclined toward this sort of game-playing, don't worry. You can easily appreciate the movie for its delightful plot and satisfying resolution. Alone, for the gorgeous, frightening, knockout scene in which Sam and the character played by Callie Hernandez (above, left) actually go into/under Silver Lake, this movie is worth all of its two hours and 20 minutes.

Released by A24 and playing in theaters for a limited time this past April, Under the Silver Lake is now available in Blu-ray, DVD and digital streaming. You have no excuse for not giving it a try. (That's the funny, mysterious Grace van Patten with balloon, above.)

Teen trauma and horror haunt David Robert Mitchell's nightmarish follow-up, IT FOLLOWS

Despite its title sounding a bit like what you'd hear during a lecture in your course on logic, IT FOLLOWS -- the follow-up film to David Robert Mitchell's very well-regarded first feature, The Myth of the American Sleepover -- is actually a horror movie in which the "it" does indeed "follow," while wreaking quite a bit of havoc along the way. Whether or not Mr. Mitchell, shown below, and his quiet, naturalistic tone work as well in this genre as they did in in his teens-come-of-age movie is another matter.

There are some marvelous moments and a few genuine and surprising scares in It Follows, but the film works best as a rather pushy metaphor for the fear of sex. Think of "it" as the worst STD of all time: Herpes, Syphilis, even AIDS are pikers compared to this one. If sex as the harbinger of fear and loss, decay and death seems especially appealing, you're gonna love this movie. Even if your tastes run to the lighter and brighter, I suspect you'll be impressed with what Mr. Mitchell, as writer and director, can ferret out of his strange concoction.

After an opening designed to let us know that something truly foul and frightening is afoot (and to give us a good taste of screams and gore, which the filmmaker then does not have to repeat, which allows him to concentrate on suspense and atmosphere instead), our pretty blond teen gal Jay (Maika Monroe, above, center, and below) and her friends sit around and kibbitz. Then Jay goes out on a date with an "older guy," in which a couple of odd (but not awful) things happen. After which comes the "sex scene " --  rather lush but distanced and quite nicely done, followed by a few moments of post-coital semi-bliss (below). Be grateful for these because they're the last that either we viewers or Jay herself are allowed to experience.

In the twinkling of an eye, as it were, all turns horrific, beginning with a ream of exposition that, in most movies, we would never tolerate. Here, however, both we and our heroine must hear this explanation in order to know what's going on. From there onwards, the movie crests and falls, builds then slows until, at the end of a too-long 100 minutes, we arrive at a certain point that hits us somewhere between annoying and satisfying, depending on what you demand of your "scare" movies. As usual, the set-up is much better than the play-out, and there's a scene in a swimming pool toward the finale that is more ridiculous than frightening.

Performances are naturalistic to a fault, with the idea being, I guess, to show us what our typical teens might do when confronted by something alien or supernatural. They don't quite rise to the occasion. But maybe that's the point. And Ms Monroe, whom I've now seen in leading roles here and in The Guest, does not strike me as an actress who holds the screen very well. Her face is pretty but empty and she is not given to much variation. After a time her blank look begins to pall. The rest of the cast do better, actually, bringing some liveliness to the proceedings.

Filmed in Michigan (the Detroit area, I think) and with a production design that seems not to be occurring in any specific time, the film is always visually interesting. It has something of the feel of a nightmare in which logic doesn't much matter and from which you would dearly like to waken. Overall, I'd call it a mixed bag, but with enough good things to warrant a visit if you're an aficionado of this genre.

From RadiusTWC, It Follows opens this Friday, March 13, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and in the L.A. area at the Arclight Hollywood. It will also open at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 on March 20. Click here to learn if and when it's playing in your neck of the woods.

THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER: Youth captured beautifully by D. R. Mitchell

David Robert Mitchell's THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER has the look, feel, sound and reality of found-footage of present-day high schoolers cobbled together into a kind of home movie. This is a compliment, by the way -- an enormous compli-ment. Captured here is the confusion of youth in all its crazy, delightful, upsetting variations: huge needs that seem all-important today but by next year will have melted into oblivion; the gnawing sense that things are expected from these kids, of which they barely have a clue; and maybe, if they're lucky, the dawning idea that not everything they've heard (or thought or even felt) may be true or end up serving them well.

Compared to what passes for "youth" movies from Hollywood, even the best of them, Mr. Mitchell's film is a revelation. Even compared to the something like this year's earlier and overpraised doc/narrative mash-up Putty Hill, Myth/Sleepover shines, for its filmmaker, shown at left, while taking his time (97 minutes), slowly builds his characters until we feel strongly for every last one of them -- some, of course, more than others. Yet no one, in the end seems short-shrifted -- thanks to the wealth of smart situations, well-chosen small moments with dialog as real as you could want, and a well-cast acting ensemble that delivers the goods. What an accomplishment this movie is!

Myth/Sleepover sneaks up on you. From the first scene at a swimming pool toward the end of summer, the goings-on seem like life for kids of this age: typical and a little boring. So real is it all that we go along, however, and then the little oddities start cropping up to delight us. A shy boy, with his mom, spots a gorgeous blond in the supermarket, with her mom, and attempts a connect (above). The way we learn how strongly he feels about her is as original and priceless as anything you'll have seen. As is what happens just-after, over the market's loud-speaker.

Another cute blond and her best friend (above) bike around town looking for, among other things, a love connection. What they find by film's end, and how they handle it, is as spectacular as it is small and pure, if muddied a bit by life. The new girl in town, below, a sophomore "looker" who's hooked up with a senior guy, is invited to the girls' sleepover and gets into some mischief. A lesser movie might cast her as the villain of the piece.  Not this one.

We even have a same-sex, male crush (below), handled so subtly and quietly -- as of course it would be in this particular venue -- that it might go right by you. (Unless I am unduly extrapolating, the filmmaker bears some resemblance to the character who carries that crush. In fact, I had to check the IMDB to make sure he hadn't cast himself in the role.)

In the tale (below) that proves the loveliest, richest and most psychologically astute (about the maturity of boys and girls at this age, and how strongly the latter already understand their needs and situation), the college-age brother of one of the girls at the sleepover fixates on a pair of twins, shown below. (The boys have their own sleepover, though it degenerates into all sorts of other things. "Do you guys call it a 'sleepover,' one of the girl's asks? "Yes," the crush boy replies, "but not in front of other people.") What happens between the young man and the twins you might call heartbreaking, except these kids have their whole lives ahead of them, so -- what the hell -- mistakes are allowed.

Even at his young age, Mr Mitchell seems to understand what's allowed but how hard it is for kids to figure this out. Loyalties move around, lips find new venues, and connections are made, though nothing (as befits such a trying and changing time) is set in stone. The filmmaker also captures middle-America today (the film is set in the Detroit area), where some things have definitely changed -- inter-racial couples, for one -- while others seem to stay forever as they are/were.

There is even a terrific scene featuring karaoke (with dancing replacing singing) for which a bottle of vodka is the prize. I am deliberately not mentioning the names of any of the actors in the remarkable ensemble cast.  They're all terrific, and on the basis of their work here, I would hope we'll be seeing them soon again. Time will tell how high it rises, but for me, The Myth of The American Sleepover immediately joins the ranks of America's great movies about high school kids.

The film, from Sundance Selects, begins its theatrical run tomorrow, Friday, July 22, at the Angelika Film Center in New York. Unlike some Sundance Selects titles, this one will be available via VOD, starting Wednesday July 27.