Poolman

 

Chris Pine’s directorial debut, Poolman, is a vanity project created by a Hollywood star devoid of professional vanity. The rather unflattering role Pine has written for himself is goofy and naive and totally winning, at least for me, but the story is a fevered mess of impressions and allusions.

Pine is the title character, a bearded, long-haired man-child in Los Angeles at some indeterminate time on a mission to challenge the city’s indifferent expansion and growth. He’s making a movie — isn’t everyone in LA? — about his crusade and is assisted by his loving analyst (Annette Bening) and her companion (Danny Devito).

When a beautiful council staffer (DeWanda Wise) comes to him with a tip about city corruption, Pine’s Darren Barrenman is fired up and begins a clumsy investigation that leads down many surprising avenues, some familiar from ‘74’s Chinatown, which is referred to many times.

Critics and audiences have been trashing Pine's Poolman as a star-studded mess. It is a bit of that. But I loved its untethered stream of consciousness and Zen master loopiness. I was perfectly content watching the zaniness without thought of the logic of the storylines or the plausibility of events. Many scenes are howlingly funny; Pine has impressive comedic chops.

I mostly enjoyed Poolman's message about citizen engagement and change through action not passive resistance.