Lakeview

Lakeview

TARA THORNE | CANADA | 2024 | 100 MIN | ENGLISH

TARA THORNE | CANADA | 2024 | 100 MIN | ENGLISH

FeatureI+N ConnexeMADE AU CANADA

Presented by

Telefilm Canada

Synopsis

Six longtime friends—and one enticing “nymph”—trek to Nova Scotia’s scenic eastern shore to attend a Good Riddance party in celebration of Darcy’s divorce. There, amongst long pours of wine, tangled histories collide in uproarious ways in this wistful dark comedy. Darcy (Lesley Smith) is finally free of matrimony. But that puts her in the sights of jittery heartthrob Dax (Hilary Adams), who has a habit of using sex and her music career as a balm. Her other friends are there for guidance, but they too have some major distractions: “boozebag” Lucy (Jessica Marie Brown) is reeling from a breakup, Lauren (Nicole Steeves) is insecure about the wandering eye of Phoebe (Faly Mevamanana), and the two Julies (Stephanie Clarke, Kat McCormack) are glowingly pregnant but stagnant in the boudoir. Perennial lake activities—hiking, swimming, taking too much Molly—bring them together, while the weight of shared baggage threatens to sink their proverbial canoe. Writer-director Tara Thorne infuses Lakeview with the bite of her audacious revenge thriller Compulsus (I+N35, 2022), adding rat-a-tat-tat humour as she ping-pongs deftly between one crisis to another, charting the zippy chemistry and pliancy of true friendship.

Filmmaker Bio

Tara (she/her) is a recovering journalist in Nova Scotia. She spent 19 years on staff at the alt-weekly The Coast, 15 on air at CBC Radio in three Maritime cities, and from 2020-22 hosted Nova Scotia’s award-winning premiere arts and culture podcast, The Tideline. Her debut essay collection, Low Road Forever, was released by Nimbus Publishing in 2022. Tara coordinates the Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival for the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative and lives in north end Halifax with her cats Winston and Gertie.

Director's Statement

Queer cinema has reached the point where the story doesn’t have to be about coming out, or the love that dare not speak its name, or an historical event in which we fought for our rights. It can be simply about the messiness of life, how complicated and intimate we can be with each other, that love comes in many forms and offers many functions. Even from within the same relationship, when we don’t agree on what those are. That’s what Lakeview is—a hangout weekend with a group of friends who are ex-partners, -lovers, and maybe -friends by the end of it. It’s about flawed, chaotic, addictive, but fundamentally good women who are just trying to find a little bit of happiness on their own terms. What happens when the sun comes up on a late night soaked in alcohol and shaken by emotional reckonings? We sing a little song, rinse out the recycling, and keep on living.

Producer

Anne Bernier, Nicole Steeves

Writer

Tara Thorne

Cinematographer

Chelsea Comeau

Cast

Lesley Smith
Nicole Steeves
Kathryn McCormack
Jessica Marie Brown

PARTNERS

Telefilm Canada

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