''Poolman'' is a 2023 American comedy mystery film directed, produced, co-written by and starring Chris Pine in his directorial debut. It premiered at the

2023 Toronto International Film Festival The 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 7 to 17, 2023.Victoria Ahearn"TIFF reveals new programmers and other 2023 festival details" '' Playback'', April 20, 2023. The most noted change from past years was tha ...

Premise

A pool cleaner in Los Angeles uncovers a sizeable water heist, one in the same vein as ''

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

''.

Cast

* Chris Pine as Darren Barrenman * Annette Bening as Diane * Danny DeVito as Jack * Jennifer Jason Leigh as Susan *

DeWanda Wise DeWanda Wise (née Jackson) (born May 30, 1984) is an American actress. She starred in Spike Lee's Netflix comedy-drama series ''She's Gotta Have It'' (2017–19), a contemporary adaptation of his 1986 film. Early life and education Wise was ...

Ray Wise Raymond Herbert Wise (born August 20, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Leland Palmer in ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991, 2017) and its prequel film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), Vice President Hal Gardner i ...

as Van Patterson * Juliet Mills as Mrs. Van Patterson * Stephen Tobolowsky * Clancy Brown

Production

It was announced in February 2022 that Chris Pine was set to make his directorial debut on the film, which he co-wrote the screenplay for with Ian Gotler. Pine will also star in the film alongside Annette Bening and Danny DeVito. Pine came up with the idea for the film during a conversation with director

Patty Jenkins Patricia Lea Jenkins (born July 24, 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. She has directed the feature films ''Monster'' (2003), ''Wonder Woman'' (2017), and ''Wonder Woman 1984'' (2020). For the film ''Monster'', she w ...

, who will serve as a producer. In May,

Ariana DeBose Ariana DeBose (; born January 25, 1991) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award and a nomination for a Tony Award. In 2022, ...

and Jennifer Jason Leigh were added to the cast, with Matthew Jensen set as cinematographer. In July,

joined the cast. Filming began in June 2022 in Los Angeles. The film moved to post-production by November 2022, with the distribution rights being sold by AGC International to

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

, StudioCanal, Lionsgate Films and other companies for multiple countries outside the United States. The rights for the UK and Ireland were sold to

Signature Entertainment Signature Entertainment is a British film distribution and film production company founded in 2011 in the UK. Overview Signature Entertainment was founded in 2011 by Marc Goldberg. The company released over 1,000 films since its inception and ...

Release

The film's world premiere took place at the

on September 11, 2023. In December 2023, Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film.

Reception

The film's initial reaction was largely negative. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 24% based on 23 reviews, with an average score of 3.6/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 20 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Michael Rechtshaffen, writing for '' The Hollywood Reporter'', called the film a "shrill misfire" and predicted that it would "likely have a tough time finding a home". Siddhant Adlakha from IndieWire opined that the film was "disastrous" and " ’s only 100 minutes long, but upward of 99 of those minutes are likely to be spent in silent boredom, if not irritated disbelief at being subjected to such guileless, artless nonsense".https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/poolman-review-chris-pine-1234905157/

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt18077924 2023 comedy films 2023 directorial debut films 2023 films 2020s American films 2020s comedy mystery films 2020s English-language films 2020s heist films American comedy mystery films American heist films Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in Los Angeles Vertical Entertainment films