Poolman (2023) review

For his directorial debut, esteemed actor Pine (who co-wrote it with Ian Gotler) cast himself as shaggy swimming pool maintenance man Darren Barrenman that claims to care passionately about his fellow Los Angeles residents: he complains to city council, led by Stephen Toronkowski (Stephen Tobolowsky), that he can help fix the bus schedule but gets rowdy and is arrested - there to bail him out is June Del Ray (DeWanda Wise) who asks him to become a detective and investigate a high-level conspiracy involving the theft of water.  The "screenplay" makes constant mention of the plot of Chinatown, but the real "influence" is The Big Lebowski - with Barrenman as an even lower-rent version of the Dude, with his disheveled appearance and scattered thinking patterns - except the final product is an incomprehensible wreck that attempts to be "whimsical" but fails miserably: there's a talking lizard, Toronkowski in drag playing Blanche (from the Golden Girls), plenty of double crossing and Darren constantly writing letters to his "hero," consumer advocate Erin Brockovich.  The assembled performers are solid - Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, Clancy Brown, Ray Wise and Jennifer Jason Leigh are all in there - but this feels like a film student's first draft.  Normally, I'd suggest a re-write, but I don't think any of this is salvageable, proving that what the Coens did with their cult classic isn't so easily repeated.