Sam is 33 years old, unemployed and counting down the days to eviction from his apartment near the Los Angeles reservoir that gives "Under the Silver Lake" its name. He doesn't seem too upset about his situation, though he is kind of a mopey guy. His malaise looks like more of a temperamental or existential condition than the response to a crisis. And he doesn't have it all that bad.
There are a few guys who are willing to hang out with him, one woman who is willing to have sex with him and a few more who might be, including a neighbor named Sarah with a fluffy little dog. There's another neighbor who has a lot of birds and walks around topless on her porch, giving Sam an opportunity for a bit of voyeurism and the director, David Robert Mitchell, a chance to nod to "Rear Window."
This is one of a great many nods, winks, rib-pokes, throat-clearings and other gestures in the direction of famous and less-famous movies, comic books, video games and songs. At one point, an issue of Spider-Man attaches itself to Sam's hand by means of an errant wad of bubble gum, which is a funny coincidence - no coincidence at all, in other words - because Sam is played by Andrew Garfield, who used to be Spidey.
