(The councilman is played by Stephen Tobolowsky, whose name is so similar to the character's that you have to wonder if the part was written specifically for him.) Other films about corruption in Los Angeles are mentioned within the plot, including "Chinatown," which gets multiple references plus actual clips, and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which Darren yells about at one of the council meetings. There's not a whole lot of plot to describe or even allude to, and I don't think "Poolman" is all that interested in what little there is. This is a vibes movie. Darren is a handsome, lovable, hairy manchild. His girlfriend Susan (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who manages the complex where Darren works, wants him to commit to her, but he's so lost in his own racing thoughts that he doesn't realize how much she adores him until it seems as if she's about to give up. Darren goes to therapy twice a week with a New Agey lady named Diane (Annette Bening) and is apparently the star of a documentary by Diane's partner Jack (Danny DeVito), who's betting his entire career on the project even though it's hard to tell what it's actually going to be about. "Poolman" is a deeply weird movie. Not deeply weird in the sense of "alienating" or "hard to take." On the contrary, it's so gentle that it could probably be considered an example of Nicecore, a type of film described by critic David Ehrlich that mostly avoids conflict and resolution and instead showcases people being nice to others.
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