Poolman Review: Chris Pine's Chinatown-Inspired Neo-Noir Bellyflops [TIFF 2023]

Things change for Darren, a desperate conspiracy theorist who comes up with ideas for a Los Angeles streetcar system in "Who Frames Roger Rabbit?" — when a femme fatale (DeWanda Wise) asks for his help in uncovering a plot involving the council president (Tobolowski), water theft and corrupt businessmen.

"Poolman" attempts to be not only a love letter to the city of Los Angeles, but a love letter to films about the city, with direct references to all the great films LA cops, from "Chinatown," to "The Long Goodbye" - characters mention the films, Darren literally watches "Chinatown" on VHS, and virtually every character in the film is related in some way in Hollywood, with most of the characters having a background in acting.

The problem is that the film has little more to offer than these references. After the first 10 minutes, the schtick between "Chinatown" and "Big Lebowski" fades, and the rest of "Poolman" is little more than one long "SNL" sketch that's too thin in concept. The mystery of Pine and Ian Gotler's screenplay is convoluted without being surprising or interesting, with each character speaking in riddles that lead nowhere.

Even worse, despite a nice ensemble of actors and characters who behave like cartoons, none of them are particularly funny. Pine plays his pool cleaner Zen to great effect, but there's little substance to the character other than, well, he's played by Chris Pine. If there's a saving grace, it's that "Poolman" looks pretty good, with the production design finding cool ways to depict Los Angeles and its strange characters - Darren's wardrobe, his short shorts in particular, do the heavy lifting in presenting an image of who this guy is. But none of that is enough to make the film float.

/Movie rating: 5 out of 10