Initial release for "Under the Silver Lake" was just under three weeks away. After a less than enthusiastic reception at Cannes, where it garnered love/hate reactions, the movie's buzz has surely diminished. I haven't written anything about it, just yet, but it's a shapeless romp into the L.A. noir of "The Big Lebowski" and "The Long Goodbye," maybe it'll become a cult hit, who knows, but there was a familiarity to the film which, when concocting such a labyrinthine plot, its creators clearly didn't intend to have on-screen.
A24 was originally set to release the film on June 22, but today's announcement that "SIlver Lake" has been pushed back a full six months isn't surprising. The new date is December 7, 2018, maybe they want to try to make the rounds at more festivals and build up a larger following, and, make no mistake about it, there will be people that'll respond to Mitchell's film. I do wonder if this release date change means they're making cuts on the film.
Bloody Disgusting‘s John Squires is reporting the "Silver Lake" shakeup. Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells says "They’ve almost certainly asked Mitchell to go back to the editing room and tighten up his 139-minute film, and perhaps even do a little re-shooting." A tricky task if you ask me, since Mitchell's intention with this film was for it to be confusing, a sort of mental haziness that builds up the overall picture. Confusion and mental haziness were part of the impressionistic thrust. The whole notion of a story revolving around a dream trip in L.A's weird hipster community is nothing new.