'Lake George' (2024) Movie Review

Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon are prime examples of character actors who show up and automatically make anything better. No matter the film or show, no matter the genre, no matter how major or minor the role, whenever they appear, things get a substantial boost. And because they’re so often supporting players, it’s always welcome when a movie like Lake George comes along that places them front and center. 

 

On the surface, writer/director Jeffrey Reiner’s film looks like a typical neo-noir riff. Whigham plays Don, a regular guy who, due to a series of bad decisions, finds himself in a steadily worsening situation. Your standard noir protagonist. Coon’s Phyllis fills the femme fatale space in the narrative, more cunning and dangerous than she initially appears. Pushed to desperation by vengeful small-time gangster Armen (Glenn Fleshler, you have to love a good villainous Fleshler turn) and his henchman Harout (Max Casella), they become reluctant partners in a scheme to get what’s theirs and escape their fate, only to encounter obstacles at every turn.

 

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Despite the setup, while Lake George hits all the genre markers, it plays with the formulas, tweaking and subverting expectations and norms. Phyllis certainly provides the instigation, and escalation, but she’s not the conventional manipulative seductress, taking an easy breezy approach to her plan, even as bodies pile up. And Don may be a world-weary sad sack, but he’s not necessarily a pawn being played for a fool, he primarily drifts along with an indifferent shrug, a “sure, why the hell not” attitude, despite a swirling sea of anxiety inside. 

 

Instead of a steamy, sexually charged thriller, the result plays like a low-key two-hander road trip with reluctant co-conspirators espousing their various accumulated traumas and philosophies on life. That’s the true joy of the movie, watching Whigham and Coon just kind of bullshit back and forth, each endlessly charismatic and charming while couched in cinematic crime tropes. Their rambling existential confabs bear definite French New Wave influences, and ennui and exhaustion undercut everything. (I also couldn’t help but recall Zero Effect, an all-time favorite, for many thematic, tonal, and aesthetic reasons.)

 

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Reiner and cinematographer Tod Campbell (Leave the World Behind) craft a spectacular looking picture, whether framing the characters in the sparse, stunning California mountains, navigating the less-travelled back streets of Los Angeles, or Armen’s gaudy, ostentatious estate. Rene G. Boscio provides a simple, minimalist, omnipresent piano score that sets the tone, augmenting the crime-fueled tension of the film at the same time it’s mischievous enough to drive-home the unusual, off-kilter nature of the story.

 

Playful, quirky, and blackly comic on occasion, I’m not sure how substantive Lake George ends up being. But it’s gorgeous to behold, strange and inventive enough to be memorable, and offers a vehicle for two wonderful if underappreciated acting talents to deliver subtle, affecting performances. It’s one that quietly burrows in and sticks around, lingering and coming back to the forefront of your mind now and again. [Grade: B]