He also directed THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER!
David Robert Mitchell doesn’t have a lot of films on his CV, but he’s doing away with all the growing pains and just releasing amazing movies. Have you seen IT FOLLOWS? If you haven’t, you should stop what you’re doing and watch it immediately.
It’s about this unseen malevolent force that manifests itself as either strangers or people you know and only attacks (at a strolling pace) if you’ve been previously cursed through sexual intercourse. Lots of interpretations about the basis behind the evil, the most popular being a parable about HIV/AIDS. It’s all sorts of trippy. The most striking is the fact that Mitchell deliberately jumps between different time eras. Let me explain.
A character uses this futuristic e-reader (also used as a light source) that’s in the shape of a clamshell. Yet all of the televisions are the old-school clunky ones, sometimes with rabbit ears antenna. All the phones have cords, nothing portable. And the cars that drive around are a healthy mixture of modern and mint-condition 70s era. Even more eerie is the fact that the actual seasons seem to change scene by scene. The lead in the film goes swimming in her backyard pool, and then later in the day goes to the movie theatre where the majority of people are wearing winter coats. There are plenty more of these occurrences. Seriously, go out and see it. In the meantime, just look at this retro poster.
Right? And now Mitchell is making his third film, UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, a crime thriller set in Los Angeles. Not much is known at this point, but Mitchell is also writing it, and Andrew Garfield (NEVER LET ME GO) is set to star. The pedigree tells us that it will be something to keep on an eye on.
(Go watch IT FOLLOWS.)