A Dedicated Student of Film Noir, Jeffrey Reiner Makes a Notable Addition to the Genre With His Debut Feature, ‘Lake George’

How good of a person is Phyllis, one of the two chief protagonists in Jeffrey Reiner’s debut feature, “Lake George”? The notion of goodness nags at Phyllis (Carrie Coons) even as she engages in behavior that most of us would agree is not good. Her backstory is hinted at: substance abuse, licentiousness, and a fondness for gangsters, particularly the mountainous Armen (Glen Fleshler). They met in rehab, fell in love, and became business partners. Phyllis has a good head for numbers; too bad she and Armen have fallen out.What kind of business Armen is engaged in isn’t clarified, but, again, we know it’s not good. Whatever its moral or legal standing, the “business” has resulted in the acquisition of a spacious mansion perched high up on a Los Angeles hilltop. Armen and his right-hand crony Harout (Max Casella) are fond of extolling the million-dollar view from its cavernous living area. Still, a two-million-dollar view would be preferable. Disgruntled entitlement is Armen’s forte. Best not to get in his way.Which is exactly what our other protagonist, Don, does after being released from prison. As portrayed by Shea Whigham, Don is an unlikely thug, being more of a middle-management type, albeit one who has gone through an existential wringer. His hair is unkempt, his wardrobe ill-fitting, and his brow coated in a film of sweat. Don doesn’t walk so much as hobble and his right arm is, if not altogether lame, then damaged. We learn that these injuries resulted from being roughed up while serving time — apparently by goons hired by Armen.Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon in ‘Lake George.’ Via Magnet ReleasingSo how did a middle-aged family man wind up working for a crime boss? Greed figures into it, as does the orchestration of an insurance scam or three. Don has paid for the crimes: His ex-wife and children don’t pick up the phone and his business contacts are evasive, retired, or dead. Out of desperation and at the end of his rope, he calls Armen to set up a meeting. Don may have fluffed the last job, but he’s owed $60,000 for his efforts. The sum should be enough to put down a payment on that cabin by the shore of Lake George. …The director’s statement accompanying the film serves as Mr. Reiner’s valentine to film noir. Particular mention is given to Don Siegel’s “The Killers” (1964), a picture likely best remembered for a scene in which Ronald Reagan, in his last film role and shortly before he entered political life, slaps Angie Dickinson upside the head. Siegel’s story of “underdogs living on the margins of society” hit Mr. Reiner’s sweet spot, and he’s made it a lifetime’s pursuit to watch every crime film extant. How far he’s gotten in this endeavor is unknown, but on the evidence of “Lake George,” our director has traversed his share of back alleys, dark corners, bad motives, and sultry women.Mr. Reiner, who also wrote the script, knows that the best film noirs are as rife with comedy as they are with grime. Admittedly, the wisecracks, clipped asides, and sotto voce observations peppering these movies tend toward gallows humor, and so it is with “Lake George.” This is particularly the case when Don and Phyllis become a team — their interactions have the cadence and flavor of a screwball comedy. Ms. Coons and Mr. Whigham establish a winning, if often caustic, repartee.Oh, Don and Phyllis team up because Armen tasks the former with the killing of the latter. How else does Don expect to make up for his past mistakes and earn that 60 grand? When Don finds himself incapable of murder, Phyllis begins a professional partnership with her would-be assassin and starts in on her machinations, the most important of which involves knowing the locations where Armen has stashed a lot of cold, hard cash. At that point, “Lake George” turns into a road movie in which our antiheroes discover just how elastic the notion of “good” can be. Give Mr. Reiner his due: He’s directed a cunning, crafty, and credible addition to the noir corpus. Should your idea of a good time involve the adventures of bad people, this movie is for you.

A Dedicated Student of Film Noir, Jeffrey Reiner Makes a Notable Addition to the Genre With His Debut Feature, ‘Lake George’

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