A hugely enjoyable success and a cheerfully optimistic take on how to be young, reckless and free.
Rage in Placid Lake (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:15
Fresh:8
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.1/10
Synopsis: Australian indie-rock singer/songwriter Ben Lee makes his acting debut in this quirky Australian coming-of-age film from director Tony McNamara. Lee plays Placid Lake, a too-wise-for-his-years high... Australian indie-rock singer/songwriter Ben Lee makes his acting debut in this quirky Australian coming-of-age film from director Tony McNamara. Lee plays Placid Lake, a too-wise-for-his-years high school student who has always had trouble fitting in. Having spent his entire high school career defending his individuality and taking the heat for it in return, Lake decides upon graduation to do what nobody expects of him--to go into the insurance business. Lake approaches his newfound pursuit of ordinariness in the way only an outcast would--by going to the library and devouring every available self-help book on the subject. As his equally eccentric friend Gemma (Rose Byrne) tries to talk him out of this bogus plan, and his parents wonder what has become of their son, Lake learns a thing or too about so-called normality that may make him rethink his life's path. [More]
Starring: Miranda Richardson, Rose Byrne, Garry McDonald, Ben Lee
Starring: Miranda Richardson, Rose Byrne, Garry McDonald, Ben Lee
Studio: Film Movement
Reviews for Rage in Placid Lake
All our expectations are turned on their head and tossed aside in The Rage in Placid Lake, a darkly comic coming of age story about a young man who tries desperately to fit in.
Lee makes an engagingly laid-back lead and a bespectacled Rose Byrne is adorable as the geeky girl-next-door.
There's an amusingly askance approach to the whole coming-of-age process that keeps us engaged.
Watching this movie is a bit like going to a dance where the drummer can't keep a steady beat. You think you should be laughing, but you just can't quite bring yourself to.
An amiable film comedy that leaves you feeling good as opposed to feeling for your wallet.
What's missing from McNamara's film is right there in the title: the anger that cauterizes teen-movie glibness and burns down to the heart of the matter.
Presents the business world as a caricature without bringing fresh comic twists to a much-lampooned subject.
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