When Don (Shea Whigham) gets out of prison, the job he had thought was all set up for him upon release falls through and he’s unable to find work, which leads him back to Armen (Glenn Fleshler), a mob boss he was running scams with prior to getting arrested. Armen apparently owes Don a bunch of money, but also claims that a mistake of Don’s set Armen’s business back, so he is owed a favor. This favor is for the low-key, relatively upstanding, certainly-not-a-killer Don to kill Phyllis (Carrie Coon), a girlfriend of sorts that Armen met in rehab, and who soon became an integral part of his business — too integral, he says. Under threat of being killed himself by Armen’s henchman Harout (Max Casella) if he refuses, Don accepts, but is predictably unable to pull the trigger.
This sets up a sunny Southern California road-tripping crime thriller, which oscillates between light comedy, rock-and-a-hard-place suspense, and pops of matter-of-fact, fairly shocking violence. After Don’s failure to follow through on the mission, Phyllis soon convinces him that they should instead team up and hit some of Armen’s stash houses, which are strewn about Los Angeles’ suburbs and beyond. And so, we move from Armen’s mansion, which has “two-million-dollar views for the price of one (of ‘Glendale and Los Angeles’),” out to Golenta past Santa Barbara, back to Thousand Oaks, with stops in the yellow grassy valleys along the way. It’s uncertain whether the film would stand up to the Los Angeles Plays Itself geography test, but it’s at least fun to see a new crime thriller incorporating the region’s sprawl with such specificity.
Lake George occasionally loses a little bit of steam with some of its overtly comedic moments, which seem to strive for a Coen Bros tenor without ever realizing the farcical punch or the mechanics that undergird many of their great bits. But it does shine in the rapport between Whigham and Coon — in the tensions and small moments that inch their characters closer to trusting one another, such as when Phyllis removes her zip ties one night before she has convinced Don of her plan, but still doesn’t flee. It’s also a legitimate blast watching the duo scheme to turn the tables on Armen, and to watch their risky behavior pile up to precarious heights. So while it’s not likely to go down as a classic road noir masterpiece like, say, Detour, Lake George is still a fairly refreshing, unpretentious, taut thriller, with the added bonus of playing host to a few impressive performances along the way.
DIRECTOR: Jeffrey Reiner; CAST: Shea Whigham, Carrie Coon, Max Casella, Glenn Fleshler; DISTRIBUTOR: Magnet Releasing; IN THEATERS/STREAMING: December 6; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 58 min.
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