What Under The Silver Lake is Really About 

The film plays out like a video game plot. Everything seems to conveniently connect together. The conspiracy stuff and codes all perfectly line up. The characters around him all seem like NPCs too. Every woman is hot and seemingly interested in Sam sexually even when he looks like shit dressed in his PJs at a fancy party. Because of all this, I think its almost all a delusion. A film set inside the head of someone who has no purpose. A lost soul desperately searching for meaning in his life. Bit like Travis Bickle or The Narrator in Fight Club perhaps.

This analysis ties everything up nicely for me. I was also quite confused as to why he was in a bath tub with water and.. tomato soup. If anyone reading this feels the same; apparently it's a 'grandma cure' for skunk smell. I never would've known, I've never seen a skunk in my area.

Holy crap bro that was seriously amazing analysis, hope to see you gain more subs soon!

The music in this movie and I’m talking about the score not the songs, the score is very…… different. Like old school Batman or something.

YES, THANK YOU! It is ridiculous how many people sailed right past the point of this film and started tearing apart every bit and it's funny to see that the film itself has all these hidden codes but in the end, they don't lead to anything new, you don't gain anything and still people miss the point that obsessing over this won't help them and they should let go!

I love this, it really helped to recontextualise my understanding of this film. I wasn't too keen on it initially, but I think it does have a lot of merit when you look at it in this way, as an archetypal example of a "neo-neo-noir". It is certainly a rare sub-genre, but perhaps "Mulholland Drive" is also one such film. I would love to do a podcast on this once I get around to re-watching it.

This is the best analysis I have seen on this film! This really is one of those rare films where you always find something new every time you revisit it

Exactly, the dog killer's identity is a red herring, and trying to find it diverges people from looking at the deeper symbolic meaning of the dog killer

Even the "owl" on the dollar is a suggestion of pareidolia. If you study these old damask-like patterns, it's probably just the edge of a leaf or another bud on the stem, but because the author tells him to look for an owl, see an owl, our brains can configure it through suggestion. Great review.

Solid analysis, you've really thought this through and this compels me to watch it again sometime soon with your analysis in mind. Subscribed and interested to see more from you in terms of recommendations and analyses.

Thank you for helping me solve a couple of things on this movie that felt out of place first watch for me! Great analysis!

When my young slacker friend, who never could get his shit together, told me he had abandoned all his possessions and shacked up with a much older bird-lady who always goes around topless, I was so relieved! I knew that now he had finally matured and was on the road to self-healing...

I’m not even gonna watch this now, I have to rewatch the film again first since it’s been a while. But I wanted to share that I just watched your video on Scorsese, which was fantastic, and was now so happy to see a video of yours on “Under the Silver Lake”, which I love, and I’m assuming you appreciate as well. Cheers.

Well made analysis. Keep it up fam 🎉

Great breakdown bro

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR INTERPRETATION! Man I had a bunch of loose ideas and opinions but you put a lot of them together in a cohesive way and added your own, perfect

Very good analysis!

I finally saw this one tonight and, yeah, awesome review.

That is a way more optimistic takeaway than I ever had, but I respect that interpretation! Incredible analysis!

I loved this film! Just finished watching it.

Great video essay, to add to the mystique of your analysis- your video is banned by A24 in USA or at least that's what the pop-up said when I tried to play it, and I was only able to watch it with a VPN turned on. I wonder wh...ehh not that rabbit hole again! Cheers mate.

Great analysis, I subscribed

Great video!

when he saw people barked at him, has anything to do with the fact that he unconsciously blocks all the ideologies and messages people are yelling and repeating over and over? and because of that it sounds like everyone is not only talking over eachother without listening but saying the same thing, which turns it meaningless and vague

The subs for the parrot in the end says "Hollywood"

Big Lebowski's remake of Big Sleep is only in a noir genre we have a stoner detective who investigates the upper crust of LA, and here young hipster investigates the upper crust of LA. Also grave of Hitchcock in movie and particularly reference to Rear window movie

Fantastic analysis.

mayb the most underrated movie ever

It's obvious the reviewer has never read Carroll Quigley, nor watched the incredible documentary "The Minds of Men".

best analysis

nice work

thanks

One of the best movies i have ever watched

nice

You said he can't escape LA. But the movie pairs that with a shot of the Hollywood sign. It's not LA he can't escape, its Hollywood (which is what my subtitles tell me the parrot is saying at the end). Is he accepting "reality"? Or is he accepting the illusion Hollywood is selling? Does his watching the Janet Graynor film symbolize he is growing up? Or is he becoming more of a mama's boy than ever (as he goes and sleeps with the mother aged neighbor immediately after)?

good video

love this film. Fans should check out DRM first feature - The myth of the american sleepover - its a great coming of age film.

I feel attacked.

Wayment... I watched this whole video and there wasn't any mention of the songwriter. Tut tut...

Yeah, it´s all nice and well, but what was the parrot saying? It is the key!

Nice analysis, however you missed ALL the codes left in the movie.

American Psycho is to alpha business men as this is to conspiracy-believing weed smokers.

It feels like a companion piece to Lynch's last three films (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire) It's definitely about the problematic role of young women in Hollywood.

Hamburgers are love....wow, Sam is really moving on and accepting reality

always surprises me how much people look into films for deeper meaning, while i generally just take them at face value, i love this movie for its vibe, im not looking for a message about self improvement or misogyny in hollywood, I couldnt care less i enjoy Polanski movies like The Ghostwriter and The Ninth Gate, but i find it difficult to describe what it is I like about them properly, its like an escape into a cool world with an interesting mystery, I find it relaxing and therapeutic i appreciate the chill atmosphere and immersion these directors can create, rather than any hidden message theyre trying to deliver, ironically I guess in the case of UTSL

THATS NOT EAST LA

About 99% of this happened in his head. He is a paranoid schizophrenic. He is the dog killer. The owl woman is imaginary and symbolizes suicide. He only saw her at his absolute lowest when he made it back to his apartment and she never touched him because she wasn’t real, he even peaked in his fucking sock drawer to look for her. The three women adoring over a millionaire in a bunker is a twisted version of the movie he watched earlier. He smells bad not due to a skunk but because his schizophrenic and very common problem for them is they smell absolutely awful and do not remember to bathe. The homeless king at the end was a cop questioning him, see the star on his chest and his tone asking about the biscuits. Everything that he “figures out” about this giant conspiracy theory is solved by shit he already has lying around his apartment. The bird at the end is saying “not a friend. Not a friend. Not a friend”. He also has red paint laying in his apartment.This is way out of order I know but there is a lot of shit like this in the movie.

was he the dog killer though?

Move on don't think too much

Is Sam the dog killer?