Shea Whigham & Carrie Coon in Basic Neo-Noir

A nifty little neo-noir carried by two likeable leads, Lake George follows a pair of down-and-out, middle-aged criminals who attempt to rip off a wealthy gangster and one way or the other get away with it.

Is {that a} acquainted premise? Sure. Do stars Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon handle to make the fabric really feel each contemporary and fascinating? Sure. Is there nonetheless a theatrical viewers on the market for this type of modest, well-acted and slickly crafted B-level thriller? That continues to be to be seen.

Premiering on the Tribeca Movie Pageant, veteran director Jeffrey Reiner’s newest function provides up a number of welcome twists on a typical noir situation: Ex-con Don (Whigham) will get out of jail and tries to gather the cash he’s owed by an L.A. thug, Armen (Glenn Fleshler), who lives in an enormous McMansion up within the Hollywood Hills. However Don isn’t any robust man, and he winds up getting coerced into killing Armen’s former squeeze, Phyllis (Coon).

There’s nothing new about that set-up, which is hammered out within the first 10 minutes or so. The remainder of Lake George is all about how that preliminary plot unravels, and retains unraveling till the very finish.

It is because Don isn’t your typical outlaw, however reasonably a meek, world-weary claims adjuster who served a protracted jail sentence for serving to Armen pull off a slew of insurance coverage frauds. Over-the-hill, with a nasty arm and paralyzed by panic assaults, he’s not precisely the appropriate candidate to hold out a homicide. And so it’s no shock that as an alternative of capturing Phyllis level clean as he was alleged to, he’s duped into teaming up along with her to steal from Armen and begin a brand new life.

Reiner’s script remembers Double Indemnity, Out of the Previous and different classics of the style the place a semi-good man crosses paths with a femme fatale and many unhealthy stuff ensues. However the director doesn’t comply with that system utterly, specializing in a few grifters who’re already previous their prime and simply in search of a little bit peace and quiet. That is particularly the case with Don, a damaged man estranged from his circle of relatives and left with nothing however a small cabin (positioned beside the movie’s titular lake) the place he hopes to quiet down and be forgotten.

Whigham has had memorable second roles in all the things from Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter to HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, so it’s good to see him enjoying the lead for a change. He hardly utters a phrase all through Lake George, but he compellingly channels a person with nothing a lot left to stay for, strolling round stupefied and shell-shocked by all of the unsuitable turns he’s taken in his life. Coon appears to be having tons of enjoyable as a bleached-blonde seductress who initially takes Don for a significant trip, till she begins to comprehend he maybe deserves higher.

Lake George rolls easily, if a bit slowly, alongside as a two-handed highway film marked by a number of robust set-pieces — notably one which takes place inside Armen’s stash home and includes a hidden secure crammed with gold bars, a ugly killing and never one however a number of amputated fingers.

Reiner, whose credit embrace such TV exhibits as Excessive Constancy, Shameless and Fargo, doesn’t shrink back from the gore, and just like the Coen brothers he blends it with a model of deadpan humor that underscores a few of the violence. One other standout scene has Don and Phyllis attempting to rob a second stash home, solely to seek out themselves witnessing an excruciating intercourse scene that retains getting interrupted by a yapping canine.

Ultimately, all of their shenanigans quantity to the theft of one thing like $200,000, which exhibits how low the stakes right here actually are. However that’s additionally what makes Lake George fairly endearing, regardless of its general familiarity and 90s-ish vibe (assume True Romance however with a pair of drained, previous and pretty incompetent thieves). With little to realize and nothing to lose, one of the best Don and Phyllis could in the end have is one another.