Netflix Is Streaming Andrew Garfield's Overlooked 2018 Thriller With A Cult Following

While Andrew Garfield is best-known for fronting Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man" films, he has played a wide variety of characters, including some real people. Garfield starred as World War II combat medic Desmond Doss in Mel Gibson's "Hacksaw Ridge," and more recently shone as famous playwright Jonathan Larson in Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Tick, Tick... Boom!," both of which earned him Oscar nominations for best actor. These were all high profile projects, but one Andrew Garfield film you may not have heard of is "Under the Silver Lake," which is now available to stream on Netflix.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, "Under the Silver Lake" flew well under the radar in 2018. This A24 film a real mish-mash of styles, with elements of surrealism, neo-noir, black comedy, and the thriller genre thrown into the proverbial blender. The result is a film that's hard to digest at first but becomes more engrossing with each watch. Garfield stars as Sam, a 30-something living in Los Angeles. He has no direction in life, but finds one after the sudden and strange disappearance of his neighbor Sarah (Riley Keough).

Sarah and her friends move out overnight, and Sam is determined to find out why. His natural tendency to see conspiracy theories in the mundane fuels his new goal. Sam's efforts take him on a journey through Los Angeles, learning about an underground ritual Sarah and her roommates apparently got caught up in. There are codes and symbols everywhere, giving both Sam and the audience something to unravel as he meets more people and dives further into the mystery.

"Under the Silver Lake" has developed a cult following over the last few years, and it's not hard to see why. Like many cult films, it split opinion upon its release (the film earned a critical rating of 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it has the exact same score on the audience Popcornmeter). But, as more and more people took a chance and decided to watch — and then rewatch — the movie, a dedicated fanbase began to grow, made up of people who appreciate what David Robert Mitchell was trying to achieve.

Much of the cult following revolves around the fact that Mitchell has admitted there are hidden codes and mysteries embedded in the film that are meant for the audience alone. There's an active subreddit dedicated to unravelling "Under the Silver Lake," with amateur sleuths looking at everything from possible Morse code in a fireworks display to potential codes on toilets. While it can be argued that one of the points of "Under the Silver Lake" is not to read too much into things, this fan theorizing has helped the movie live on and find new viewers. Some cult classics are really bad films, but this isn't one of them.