Lake City (2008)

11% of critics liked it
(27 reviews)
35% of users liked it
(3,612 ratings)

Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, and music icon Dave Matthews star in this tale of an estranged mother and son who reluctantly come together in hopes of saving their home. Maggie (Spacek) and Billy (Garity) are a desperate mother and damaged son who went their separate ways following a long-ago tragedy.… More Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, and music icon Dave Matthews star in this tale of an estranged mother and son who reluctantly come together in hopes of saving their home. Maggie (Spacek) and Billy (Garity) are a desperate mother and damaged son who went their separate ways following a long-ago tragedy. South African-born singer/songwriter Matthews portrays a drug dealer willing to harm anyone keeping him from recovering cocaine that was stolen from him by Billy's troubled wife. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Hunter Hill, Perry Moore
Written By: Hunter Hill, Perry Moore
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Drama

In Theaters: Nov 7, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Mar 3, 2009
Studio: Screen Media Films

Critic Reviews

Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
A convoluted, discombobulated take on a small-town drama, Lake City shifts gears so often it never gets out of the driveway.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
With all the high-profile movies blasting into theaters at this time of year, Lake City will probably get lost in the shuffle. That won't be a tragedy.
Ben Lyons, At the Movies
An interesting little film.
Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies
A movie that just didn't really ring true.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
One of those Deep Dark Secret movies, the dull indie Lake City combines a wholly uninteresting family mystery with a wholly unconvincing crime drama.
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
Only natural spitfire Spacek, as the pickup-driving mom of the land, feels fresh.
Bill Gibron, PopMatters
Lake City lacks the one thing that makes all edge of your seat experiences viable - a reason to care.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...ultimately establishes itself as a compelling little drama...
Paul Brenner, Filmcritic.com
It is phony, manipulative films like this that make people line up for Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
Bill White, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
When Hill and Moore leave story and characters behind to veer off into suspenseless chases through cornfields, one wonders if the era of earnest American drama may be coming to a close.
Josh Rosenblatt, Austin Chronicle
The only thing saving Lake City from total ridiculousness is Spacek.
Michelle Orange, L.A. Weekly
Mother and son have an uneasy bond that should be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a movie in which a child's room has been preserved and locked tight.
Robert Koehler, Christian Science Monitor
The astonishingly inept finish could serve as a primer in screenwriting classes on how not to wind up a family drama.
Wade Major, Boxoffice Magazine
An intermittently admirable but largely incongruous work that suggests not only divergent sensibilities on the part of the two neophyte filmmakers, but a certain indecisiveness regarding their core audience.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
"Lake City" is a throwaway film with a cast it doesn't deserve.
Noel Murray, AV Club
The movie has an earnest tone, and a burnished golden glow that's pleasing to the eye, but the characters have no life beyond their immediate problems, and the actions the plot requires them to take to resolve them.
Mark Peikert, New York Press
All of these movies uneasily coexist under the umbrella title of Lake City, which is a shame because Sissy Spacek can be found wasting a genuinely affecting performance in this mess.
David Fear, Time Out New York
The real shame is the waste of Spacek. She's an American treasure who doesn't work nearly enough; to see this star make a rare appearance, only to wither among such emotional cheap shots, is the one thing in Lake City that will genuinely make you weep.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

jay n

Sissy and Troy are good but the screenplay is rather scattered not leaving them with much to work with although they do have one good emotional scene.
Daisy M

Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, and music icon Dave Matthews star in this tale of an estranged mother and son who reluctantly come together in hopes of saving their home. Maggie (Spacek) and Billy (Garity) are a desperate mother and damaged son who went their separate ways following a… More
Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, and music icon Dave Matthews star in this tale of an estranged mother and son who reluctantly come together in hopes of saving their home. Maggie (Spacek) and Billy (Garity) are a desperate mother and damaged son who went their separate ways following a long-ago tragedy. South African-born singer/songwriter Matthews portrays a drug dealer willing to harm anyone keeping him from recovering cocaine that was stolen from him by Billy's troubled wife. <a href="http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp286/ladypink_2009/?action=view&current=lake20city-thumb1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp286/ladypink_2009/lake20city-thumb1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> Lake City is a powerful film, well made, well cast 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, and still maintaining the fine balance between the feelings of love, anger, rage, guilt, and compassion. The mother and son relationship is the best that has ever been able to portray. It a must to see film. Nice. 4 stars