‘Poolman’ Review: Chris Pine Skims the L.A. Underbelly in Homage to Classic Noir | Toronto

Chris Pine loves noir films. Mostly Chinatown, but really just noir films in general. This much is clear from his directorial debut Poolman, in which he plays Darren Barrenman, a hapless, anxious pool cleaner at LA’s Tahitian Tiki apartments, who gets dropped into a modern-day Chinatown plot along with his neighbors Jack and Diane (Danny DeVito and Annette Bening, respectively) and girlfriend Susan (Jennifer Jason Leigh). It’s a surprisingly straightforward Chinatown riff that proves to be the perfect launching pad for a satire of the genre that had its heyday in the 1940s (and a revival in the 1970s). By dropping present-day LA kooks into a straight-up film noir, Pine and co-screenwriter Ian Gotler are able to poke fun at the genre tropes in a natural way, coming up with a film that is definitely on its own unique wavelength, but is such a fun ride if you can get on it.

Darren lives a comfortable, if low-rent life. He wakes up every morning in his poolside trailer and tests his apartment complex’s pool water and cleaning it before taking some time to meditate under the water. He writes daily letters to Erin Brockovich, whom he admires as a social justice warrior, and visits his New Age-y neighbor Diane for therapy sessions. In his evenings, he has been trying to make the city better by convincing the city council, led by Stephen Toronkowski (Stephen Tobolowsky), to adopt a better bus schedule and trolley lines, while being filmed by his neighbor and friend Jack for a documentary about his fight for justice. After losing his temper during one council meeting and ending up in jail for the night, he is approached by June Del Rey (DeWanda Wise), Toronkowski’s secretary, with information that Toronkowski is as corrupt as Darren thinks he is. This puts him on a path to the heart of darkness that is Los Angeles politics, taking his friends and neighbors along for the ride.

Poolman begins with Pine giving the audience exactly what they want as Matthew Jensen’s camera lovingly caresses his shirtless body in the California sun, cleaning the pool to some soothing classical music. After that, though, Pine follows his bliss, dropping his innocent gang of oddballs into a straight-up 40s-style noir shot through with eye-popping color. By plopping these ridiculous characters into a serious film noir where everything else is played perfectly straight, the film manages to have its cake and eat it too, paying homage to the genre while also calling out how silly its tropes are. It’s the best kind of parody, heightened by perfect casting – Clancy Brown and Ray Wise are great noir heavies, and DeWanda Wise makes for a striking, perfectly stylized femme fatale.

On the other side of the film, Annette Bening and Danny DeVito are as perfect as you could imagine as a pair of lovable weirdos. Both are perfectly cast for their comic personas, with DeVito rambling in his trademark rasp through stories that only vaguely relate to whatever conversations he’s having, and Bening filtering her warm intensity through a New Age-y Earth Mother persona that perfectly skewers a very specific kind of Los Angeles woman. Poolman doubles as a love letter to Los Angeles, with a lot of local-color jokes that will leave non-Los Angelenos scratching their heads. The comic energy being put out by the cast (at least among the Tahitian Tiki set) is so strong, however, that it overpowers the extreme specificity of the jokes, encouraging you to laugh at the situation and general vibe even if the actual punchline goes over your head. The production design is equally at home in the more run-down side of the city where Darren lives and in the grand government halls where the rich and powerful reside, crafting two worlds that shouldn’t fit together but do, emphasizing the film’s message about the importance of community.

At the head of this community is Pine himself. He’s an endearing lead, combining the stoner-out-of-his-depth vibe of Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski with his own beachy bohemian persona. Darren is a nice guy, which makes him a perfect patsy, but he also genuinely cares about his friends and his home, and that generous spirit is infectious. Pine is a versatile comedian, as talented at taking pratfalls as he is at escalating emotions to comically absurd levels, and his sense of timing is flawless. Not a single punchline gets missed under his watchful eye, flowing locks, and mountain man-esque beard. This carries over to his work in the director’s chair, keeping everything moving at a good pace and not becoming so enamored of any comic gag or cinematic homage that it overstays its welcome.

Poolman is very much a vibes movie. If you’re not a fan of film noir, it will be difficult to grab onto what Pine and his crew are doing, and even if you are a fan, you still have to get on the film’s comedic wavelength in order to fully enjoy it. The film’s comic rhythms are just off-kilter enough that doing so is not an easy task, even with the committed cast. The film name checks Chinatown several times, and the plot of that half of the movie is so similar to it that Robert Towne should probably have gotten a story credit, but there are also myriad visual references to that film and many other LA-set crime dramas that will only increase the enjoyment of cinephiles. But one can very easily get tonal whiplash from just how serious and strait-laced the noir sections of the film are and how broadly quirky the comedy is. The noir parody works, but it’s not a style of parody that we see all that often, making the film more idiosyncratic and less audience-friendly than you would expect. This is not a traditional crowd-pleaser, it’s made with a very specific audience in mind. If you’re not in that audience, Poolman will be incredibly difficult to sit through. But for those who are in the target audience, and those who can get on the cast’s comedic wavelength, it’s a pretty fun time.

Grade: B

This review is from the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.