Long before all the swan-shaped pedal boats and accompanying selfies, PI J.J. “Jake” Gittes (Jack Nicholson) surreptitiously snapped photos of engineer Hollis Mulwray and his mistress during a midafternoon paddle. (Psst: The famed green space also appears in Under the Silver Lake.)
Under the Silver Lake is the latest in a long line of films following amateur sleuths who sink into the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, where they encounter cover-ups, seductions and everything else that we talk about when we talk about noir. This time around, lead Andrew Garfield traverses Downtown L.A. (the Last Bookstore), Hollywood (a party in Hollywood Forever Cemetery) and, yes, the film’s titular, bougie ’hood (a nocturnal dip in the Silver Lake Reservoir). So to toast the new release from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell, let’s
revisit spots from La La Land’s storied past with noir, shall we?