Lake City (2008) User Reviews

good acting sure can save a movie from getting Thumbs down .

[jaybob · 7/10 · 14 March 2009]

Hunter Hill & Perry Moore co-wrote the screenplay and co-directed the film. It is there first effort at writing & directing.

The basic plot & story has been done before. What saves this film from a thumbs down review is the fine acting by its stars.

Sissy Spacek is excellent as usual,this time as a mother.Many years before there was a tragedy in her life. We find out towards the end what it is.

Troy Garity (in case any one does not know his real mother is Jane Fonda. He does have talent.

Drea De Matteo has a very dramatic role as a troubled young mother. She too has talent.

Rebecca Romijn is a police woman, also a very talented actress.

Colin Ford (he was 10 when film was made) is excellent as the troubled son of Drea's character, We also find out who is Daddy is. (no surprise there). The lad does have talent, as well.

I am going to assume it was originally a longer movie, as we can see where they edited some scenes.

The film played in some festivals and only had a one week run in one theatre in both Los Angeles & New York. Rent this, if you like good acting & the actors mentioned above,Its a bare Thumbs up film.

Ratings: *** (0ut of 4) 81 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)

Well acted, Slowly Paced

[melissa_and_brian · 7/10 · 6 March 2009]

This character driven film will appeal to those who like dramas that focus more on character development than action; although, there are moments of intense action. Sissy Spacek delivers a powerful performance as a mother who has yet to cope with her past. She unexpectedly finds herself reunited with her son who is running away from his troubles and she helps facilitate healing for both of them. I thought the camera-work and lighting played up the natural beauty of the idyllic rural town. The music and some scenes, though, have a made-for-TV (cliched) feel. Rebecca Romijn and Dave Matthews are notable for solid realistic acting. Troy Garity is adequate for the role, but in several scenes he looks like he is doing drama school exercises. I think this may be due more to the first time writer/directors than Garity. They seem conflicted on how to maintain realism vs being sappy. Overall, I think Spacek carries this movie and you develop a genuine bond with the characters.

I Lost It

[valis1949 · 5/10 · 19 March 2009]

Lucinda Williams croaks forlornly about a world without tears while sunlight radiantly burnishes the Autumnal hills. Enter Sissy Spacek who portrays a Hallmark heartland matriarch- stoic and strong. Add a son with problems with booze and wild women, a bratty kid, Dave Mathews (of The Dave Mathews Band) as a menacing drug dealer, and combine it all with a very murky and ominous family history. In an attempt to inject a degree of suspense into the narrative, a character in this film asks, "What's in that room?", and the answer is, "We don't go in there". Thus, viewers are guaranteed that a dark and mysterious family secret is about to be dredged up. Seriously, if you want to see how family secrets can be dealt with intelligently, check out, I HAVE LOVED YOU FOR SO LONG. In that film, they do it right. Even if you are a fan of melodrama, LAKE CITY strains too hard for just a few meager emotional revelations

Fantastic

[Peff382 · 7 January 2010]

This movie needs to be seen! It is very reminiscent of "Witness" in that someone is hiding in a rural setting from criminals. The acting is impressive: Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, Keith Carradine, Rebecca Romijn, Dave Matthews (yes, THAT Dave Matthews), and Drea de Matteo (in a small part) are fantastic! I started to watch it because I've been a big fan of both Spacek and Garity, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story begins with several questions that are eventually answered, and by the second half of the film I was on the edge of my seat. Please, if you get a chance to watch this (like I did on one of the Showtime channels) you will not be disappointed. One spoiler...if you're a "softie" like me, you may be shedding a tear or two by the end.

Good film.

[JMatthewDavis · 7/10 · 4 November 2008]

Lake City was a good film. My wife and I saw it at the SCAD festival(Savannah) and found it to be very entertaining. The Q & A with the Writer/directors and the films star was very interesting, too. For the budget and time it took to actually film this movie, I thought it was very good. Very impressive. It just goes to show that it can be done without extravagant budgets. I hope these guys can keep it up. As a struggling actor in Atlanta, GA, it was refreshing to see they used local talent as well as the bigger named actors. There are a lot of us talented actors out here that pray for movie-makers like this (that trust themselves and the storyline enough so that they can help showcase otherwise undiscovered talent). I hope they continue to make movies down South to give us actors (down here) a chance to be in a great movie someday. We want to know what is next? KUDOS and break many things in your endeavors guys.

Hasty Ending and Supermarket Music Mar Otherwise OK Drama

[pc95 · 6/10 · 21 July 2013]

Directed reportedly by both Perry Moore and Hunter Hill, "Lake City" is a fairly decent movie despite it's terrible music and thrown together badly clichéd and unneeded ending. The central actors of Billy, Clayton, and Maggie manage to share a good interaction, and I enjoyed their nurturing of the young boy. All three actors did a good job, but despite their performances and well written dialog, the producers and directors skimped on the score/soundtrack involved, which sounded of a poor quality out of the elevator or supermarket. The amped up violence at the end was hardly worth the shock value either, and was unimaginative and seen before much better done in other movies. So the movie is kind of a mix - it didn't really need all the thrill or suspense, and had a professional enough cast to make the story work without the drug side-story. Give it a mixed review: 6/10....could've been better

staring Sissy Spacek

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 18 March 2018]

Maggie (Sissy Spacek) is alone on her farm. George wants to sell both of their farms to a road construction. Out of the blue, her son Billy shows up with a boy named Clayton and on the run from a drug dealer. Billy and Maggie have issues from the past. Billy reconnects with Jennifer who is now a police deputy.

Sissy Spacek is certainly the big name in this and she keeps the attention of the audience. Troy Garity is nominally the lead but he lacks overall charisma. Dave Matthews, of his own band, plays the heavy villain. While he gets some of the grim of a lowlife, he does not have the power of a menace. There isn't enough of everything. The reveal of the past teases on for too long with limited effect. This should be a cold-blood crime drama but it only gets there at the end. It's too little too late. Nothing happens for far too long.

Running Home

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 10 March 2009]

LAKE CITY is a little low budget film that has a good enough story behind it, backed by several social issues that are well handled to make it work. Writers/Directors Hunter Hill and Perry Moore present a flavorful feeling of the South and keep this at times creaky story line moving along with the necessary momentum to maintain the viewer's interest.

The male lead of the film is in the Fonda line (Jane as mother, Peter as uncle, Henry as grandfather) and as such Troy Garity seems to have inherited the right genes. As Billy he is the central character: Billy left a troubled home to seek his fortune as a guitar musician, but became involved with Hope (Drea de Matteo) who is deep into drugs and drug theft and has left son Clayton (Colin Ford) in Troy's care. Troy is implicated in the drug theft and narrowly escapes death at the hands of dealer Red (David Matthews), taking Clayton with him to his hometown and mother Maggie (Sissy Spacek). Troy's alcoholism and trauma drive him to AA meetings where he shares time with his old girlfriend-now-a-cop Jennifer (Rebecca Romijn). There are flashbacks that suggest a childhood trauma in Troy's past, a trauma that has driven a schism between Troy and Maggie. And there are many twists and turns (some rather poorly delineated) that would be spoilers to reveal, but suffice it to say that this druggie on the run and son/mother relationship as well as the origin of the young keenly observant and needy Clayton together unfold the history of a family at risk.

Sissy Spacek is fine as Maggie and Troy Garity shows strong promise as Troy. There are some minor subplots that include actors such as Keith Carradine that add little except atmosphere. Despite its flaws LAKE CITY provides strong entertainment. Grady Harp

Sissy Spacek

[trrichey4-707-413417 · 10/10 · 8 June 2013]

Excellent movie! Sissy Spacek has such a quiet beauty about her! Love the ways she can make you feel her emotions with just a look. Wish she made more movies. This movie was very touching especially the scenes with Sissy and the boy. A great deal of emotion and power dealing with the death of a loved one. Loved the location of the movie and the cinematography. Beautiful landscapes with great small town shots. You could really feel the beauty of belonging to something like this farm and family through the emotions expressed by just a look from Sissy. I thought the whole cast was great. Rebecca Romijn played an excellent part as a small town Sheriff. I highly recommend this movie.

Lake City(2008)

[geronimo109-1 · 10/10 · 31 March 2010]

'Lake City' is a film written and directed by Perry Moore and Hunter Hill, about a man named Billy (Troy Garity) running away back to his home down South and his mother Maggie (Sissy Spacek) to escape his drug connections. In tow, he has Clayton (Colin Ford) his girlfriend's son and a large amount of drugs sought by Red (Dave Matthews), a nefarious dealer. Though he does his best to keep his head down and readjust to life in the small town, his old life (and tragedies therein) proves too difficult to shake off, forcing a direct confrontation with both the life he has created (and destroyed) for himself and the life that he was running away from when he left.

Sissy Spacek as Maggie is clearly the rock at the center of the film, around which all other elements orbit and evolve. With each and every glance and turn of her sturdy but weathered face, she conveys the wisdom and strength of the 'people of the land', to spin a tired phrase, and the environment that they live in. Though the film's story ostensibly hinges on the actions taken by Billy, it is Maggie who is the film's heart and soul, personifying all of the conflicted feelings that Billy has about the rather double-edged notion of home, where you can count on everyone knowing who you are, but also on being the same person that you were when they first met you. Maggie's relationship with Billy is a complicated (and frequently tense) one, but as convincing as Garity is as a drug user, it is Spacek who lets us know just where the divide between them lies.

'Lake City' is a very solid film, and I highly recommend it. It may be a little hard to track down(it is available on Netflix), but I suggest you do; you won't be disappointed.

Excellent and powerful film. A must see!

[heshs · 10/10 · 3 December 2008]

Lake City is a powerful film, well made, well casted and well scripted. The direction is remarkable and the acting is fabulous. Each actor comes across very natural and the characters are very believable....at many times, it is almost like watching a real life situation. The director's have dealt with the story in a very special manner - delicately maintaining the fine balance between the feelings of love, anger, rage, guilt, and compassion. The mother and son relationship is the best any celluloid has ever been able to portray. Please do not miss this special film - A Must See!! I also had the pleasure of meeting both director's (Perry Moore and Hunter Hill) at the informal q n a at the Quad Cinemas in NY. Getting to know about the budget and time frame of the shoot, it was beyond impressive. I wish both Perry and Hunter my very best and would love to see more films that I am confident will make a difference contributing to GOOD cinema. thanks for a great film.

The rarely explored story about mothers and sons.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 2 May 2016]

I found it hard to look at this movie and see Sissy Spacek and Tom Garity as mother and son. Her lack of the typical Hollywood look made her an odd choice for stardom in the 1970's, but she remains one of the best discoveries of that era. Her decision to move out of the limelight has kept her youthful beyond her years. She doesn't look as if she could be Garvi's leading lady, but maybe older sister. So in this character-driven drama, as you get to know these people, it comes as a bit of a surprise when it is revealed that he is her son. He shows up after being away for years, and she tells him without hesitation that this is still his home, and that includes the little boy whose connection at first it's on explained.

Garvi is on the run for reasons he is keeping to himself, and his return home has mom Spacek wondering just what he's hiding. The sudden appearance of the little boy's mother reveals a few more details, as does the presence of a rather seedy character who gives indication that's Garvi is involved in something truly shady.

It's also obvious that the little boy is indeed Spacek's grandson, but Garvi refuses to tell him. Spacek slowly bonds with the little boy, often cross with him, but apologetic to him almost immediately. The earthy and practically angelic Spacek only shows minor signs of age, and her earth mother performance is extraordinarily nuanced and strong. Garvi, too, is a great find, combination John Garfield and James Dean, handsome but troubled. Colin Ford holds up well as the sad little boy opposite the amazing Spacek, and adds the right sort of quiet hostility to play Garvi's son believably.

My one wish in my life is to see Spacek on stage. She would certainly be an amazing Amanda in "The Glass Menagerie". I have said in several of my reviews that Spacek is among the best of her generation, and nobody expresses down to earth Southern charm and simplicity like her, yet making her characters extremely complex at the same time. Other than Dianne Wiest, I can't think of many actresses I'd picture as the perfect mother, which indeed is much more difficult to play than it sounds. This drama instantly grabs you, ingeniously using an unsteady camera in the tense moments to represent the emotional upheaval these three characters go through in 90 minutes. The flashbacks to what lead to Spacek and Garvi's estrangement is truly shattering. It's the human dramas like thus that Hollywood should be focusing itself on rather than the predictable headache inducing crud it focuses on.

very good movie

[fred_lorey · 8/10 · 3 December 2010]

like the other reviewers, I thought this was an excellent film with excellent directing, cinematography, and most of all acting, by all members of the cast. the only reason I didn't give it 10 stars is because I was a little unsatisfied with the ending, because it didn't clue us in on what was happening. where was he "coming back" from? they were moving, but to where? will they all stay together and where? what happened to the money and the heroin left in the drawer in the barn? maybe I'm clueless but had to repeat that last scene on the porch to even clarify that she said to call him when he starts back. ah well, guess need to leave it to the imagination.

One of the Best films yet!

[Johndamianrodriguez · 10/10 · 23 November 2008]

Recently, I met Mr. Perry Moore (Director) of Lake City,

His film touched me. I really think this man is a genius in the making. Lake City is a film about pain, and suffering, of things said and unsaid a film about a mother and son's struggle to forget a terrible accident gone wrong. The cast was beautifully put together.

The film touched on the human side of life. It showed how vulnerable pain can make us. How if kept inside can make us hurt. But, in Lake City you get to see it all. you see pain, you see a man struggle with responsibility and you get to see him grow along with his mothers help. At the end ...... Well, you decide. "Go see it"

Sissy Spacek and Barry Corbin are the best things about this movie.

[TxMike · 27 September 2009]

The title refers to the small town where most of the movie takes place. I had "Lake City" on my list of prospective rentals but it appeared on network TV recently. It has some interesting elements, but overall I didn't find it to be a particularly interesting movie.

One reason is Troy Garity as Billy. I don't find Garrity to be a particularly interesting actor, and his voice has a distracting, unsatisfying quality about it. Here Billy has gotten too close to the criminal drug element, and he needs to get away quickly. So he takes a road trip to his mother's home on some land outside Lake City. (It was filmed in Virginia.)

Sissy Spacek is his mother, Maggie, who cares about her son but is unhappy with his propensity for trouble.

One of Billy's old friends is Rebecca Romijn in her "southern voice" as Jennifer, a cop in the small town.

A side story involves a group buying up land for a development, and Barry Corbin as George is a friend of Maggie's and tries to convince her to sell, because they can both get a much better price if they sell together. (I once worked with Corbin in "A Face to Kill For" and it is always nice to see him on screen.)

The movie has a rather predictable element of friction between son and mother. Also predictably the crooks show up looking for Billy. Also predictably Jennifer gets involved in defeating the crooks.

Unsatisfying indie drama

[Wizard-8 · 1 July 2017]

The critic quotes on the front and back of the DVD case for "Lake City" suggest that the movie is a thriller of sorts, but it really isn't (more about that shortly). Instead, the movie is for the most part a look at different characters intertwined together, and their various weaknesses and motivations. The actors do a pretty good job with what they are given, I admit. Also, there are some good dramatic moments here and there, but the movie as a whole does not work. There are a number of moments where you expect characters during stressful and/or painful moments to ask some obvious questions, but they never do for some reason. In fact, at the end of the movie there are a number of plot threads that haven't been properly completed. The movie's main mistake comes in the last ten or so minutes, when it suddenly turns from a sober domestic drama of sorts into a violent thriller - which feels REALLY out of place. This movie feels more like a rough draft that hasn't gone through some serious rethinking and polishing, so it's easy to see why it was barely released to theaters.