| Poolman | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Chris Pine |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Matthew Jensen |
| Edited by | Stacey Schroeder |
| Music by | Andrew Bird[1] |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Vertical Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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.
A pool cleaner in Los Angeles uncovers a sizeable water heist, one in the same vein as Chinatown.[3]
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.[3] Pine came up with the idea for the film during a conversation with director Patty Jenkins, who will serve as a producer.[5] In May, Ariana DeBose and Jennifer Jason Leigh were added to the cast, with Matthew Jensen set as cinematographer.[6] In July, DeWanda Wise joined the cast.[7]
Filming began in June 2022 in Los Angeles.[8] The film moved to post-production by November 2022, with the distribution rights being sold by AGC International to Paramount Pictures, StudioCanal, Lionsgate Films and other companies for multiple countries outside the United States.[9] The rights for the UK and Ireland were sold to Signature Entertainment.[4]
The film's world premiere took place at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2023.[2][10] In December 2023, Vertical Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film.[11]
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.[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 20 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[13]
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".[14] Siddhant Adlakha from IndieWire opined that the film was "disastrous" and "[i]t’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".[15]
