'LAKEVIEW' REVIEW: Old Friendships Reach Boiling Point [3.5/5]
Writer-Director Tara Thorne's Friendship Dramedy Lives and Dies On How Much You'd like to Hangout with Its Characters
[Rating 3.5/5] - dir. Tara Thorne - 2024 - Canada - NR - 1h 40m - Dramedy
Writer-director Tara Thorne explores what happens when a close-knit group of friends with years of unresolved conflict, indirect competition, and shared partners are brought a newbie and an old favourite — and left in one a horse town.
Thorne has an ear for wry dialogue, and a penchant for inspiring acting that is playfully performative and seriously funny.
There is also a consistent, nagging, low-lying current of anger that threatens to undermine her typically emotionally sharp, ironically optimistic work, first in 2021’s comedy-drama-thriller-revenge-fantasy Compulsus, and now here again in Lakeview.
And there remains the unique issue of niche. There’s a lot of power in exhibiting a very specific kind of thinking, or group, or behaviour. At its best, that kind of film draws your curiosity, and you learn something, but at its worst it’s like listening to someone explain an inside joke, and never feeling like you have enough context to fully appreciate it.
Highlights are stars and frequent Thorne collaborators actors Lesley Smith and Kathryn McCormack.
The success of Lakeview will vary based on how much the viewer would like to hangout with the friends assembled. Those who like it will love it.
Regardless, it’s obvious Thorne isn’t too fussed whether we’re in or out.
She is in full creative control, and executing exactly how she wants. That is refreshing.
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Lakeview is available now. Read our Brief Interview with Tara Thorne.
Selected Movie Quote: “I am very threatened by this nymph in my family home.”
[Rating 3.5/5] - dir. Tara Thorne - 2024 - Canada - NR - 1h 40m - Dramedy