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‘Lake George’ Review: Two Fugitives Try Sticking It to the Mob in an Unpredictable Neo-Noir
Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham are on the lam in Jeffrey Reiner’s deft crime movie 'Lake George,' which mixes low-key black humor and a high body count.
The filmmaker has cited formative viewings of classic film noirs on television as an inspiration, but this twisty tale feels more like the melancholy genre fictions of the late Ross Macdonald — low-key, droll, downbeat yet empathetic tours through labyrinths of disillusioned and corrupted Southern California lives. As it winds from Glendale to the high Sierras, with a lot of home break-ins and motel rooms between, “Lake George” deploys familiar tropes of pulp noir, but doesn’t use them to hit the usual notes. The deftness of Reiner’s approach is amplified by the ways in which Tod Campbell’s unfussy widescreen cinematography gradually encompasses more spectacular scenic backdrops, just as Rene Boscio finally expands upon the solo piano textures of his faintly bluesy, jazz-adjacent score.
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