What happened to Chris Pine’s “Poolman”? I had reported about the disastrous premiere screening on Tuesday, before reviews had even come out, but things have only gotten worse since then.
I have to admit, I didn’t expect the reviews to be this bad. Fine, I had heard toxic things after it premiered on Tuesday, but TIFF audiences are fairly forgiving, they’re known to champion mediocrity if they have to. Not on this instance.
The film, which is said to be a riff of “Chinatown” and “Under the Silver Lake,” has been compared to an L.A. neo-noir reminiscent of Raymond Chandler’s works. That’s where the comparisons to actual quality end.
IndieWire’s Siddhant Adlakha called Poolman “one of the worst movies to ever play at a major festival, putting Pine’s position as Hollywood’s best Chris in serious jeopardy.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Michael Rechtshaffen said, “[The movie] gets lost in the shrill goofiness of a concept, which, at best, feels like the sort of half-baked SNL character sketches that tend to get buried in the slot following the second musical performance.”
Last I checked, the film was at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, 25 on Metacritic and has a 5.3/10 rating on IMDB. Apparently the idea for this movie started off as a joke between Pine and his co-writer Ian, while filming ”Wonder Woman 1984.” Now the film itself is a running joke, but probably not the one Pine intended.
“Poolman”, which stars Pine, has him playing a pool cleaner in Los Angeles who uncovers a water heist conspiracy. The cast Pine’s assembled here is actually impressive — Annette Benning, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny DeVito and Ray Wise.