Abstract
This article examines how David Robert Mitchell's 2018 neo‐noir film Under the Silver Lake (US) displays the myopia of conspiracy theories, particularly insofar as they ignore gender‐based violence and oppression. The article contends that the film's male characters become so engrossed in uncovering grand systemic plots that they overlook the immediate, tangible exploitation of women. Mitchell ridicules this obsessive focus on the abstract conspiracy by making it incarnate in ludicrous objects and ironizing his characters’ motives. But this article argues that women, constantly relegated to the film's background both literally and metaphorically, are never handled with enough sophistication in the film, forcing the viewer into the disturbing position of reproducing the conspiracy theorist's gaze. The article thus critiques the film's failure to adequately move beyond a male‐centric perspective. This narrative shortcoming is part of a broader sense of conspiratorial obliviousness, which this analysis demonstrates by situating Under the Silver Lake within a broader tradition of Hollywood conspiracy films and a robust critical discourse on the nature of conspiracy. By analyzing key scenes in the film, this article shows how Mitchell's cinematic gaze displays the misogyny of conspiratorial thinking, connecting the film's subject to longstanding feminist discussions of film. Finally, this critique aims to suggest something about how we read problematic works of art, for however much this article's author disavows the characters of the film, he cannot help but display a mesmeric interest in them. Thus this article reaches toward, without fully explicating, the question of whether critics are in control of the critical attitude they take toward an analyzed work.
