TIFF 2023: Our Review of ‘Poolman’

Posted in TIFF 2023 by - September 17, 2023
TIFF 2023: Our Review of ‘Poolman’

From Star Trek to Wonder Woman, Chris Pine has had a pretty good career with a strong fan base behind him. In Poolman he gets behind the camera, directing himself in a film he co-wrote. Unfortunately the results aren’t good, and it might just be the worst film he’s ever been in.

Darren (Pine) is a dreamer, who does nothing but spend his days living in a trailer and tending to a pool. Sure, he’s trying to fight city council to protect his city from developers, but no one takes him seriously. After getting arrested he’s approached by a woman and asked to do some undercover work, which puts him smack dab in the middle of something. The only problem is he’s not quite sure what that something is, even though he thinks he does.

There’s so much wrong with Poolman that it’s going to be hard to put it all down. For starters, it’s a blatant rip off of Chinatown, and they don’t even try to hide it. Secondly, the film is trying extremely hard to be a love letter to film noir, but it ends up being a farce instead. And third, none of the jokes are funny. When the audience laughs, it’s because of how much of a train wreck the film is. Even Pine’s character seems like the bastard child of the Dude from The Big Lebowski and Johnny from Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. Not a good combination.

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While Roderick has only been writing movie reviews for a relatively short time, he's been a fan of film for as long as he can remember. It's a love affair that started when he saw Star Wars at a drive-in theatre in Kitchener when he was four years old. In the past decade he's fulfilled his dream of interviewing celebrities, attending red carpets events at festivals such as TIFF and writing reviews for outlets such as Realstylenetwork.com. He's always on the hunt for the next big thing to hit the screen.
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