February 5, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Hamid Antonio Castro
Culture Representation: Taking place in New York state, the dramatic film “Lake George” features a racially diverse cast of characters (Latin, white, Asian and African American) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A fitness trainer and his recently paroled cousin lie, cheat and steal so that they can get $100,000 to pay for extortion from a prison gang threatening to kill the fitness trainer’s incarcerated father.
Culture Audience: “Lake George” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of crime thrillers, but the movie’s plot becomes too incoherent and badly staged to enjoy.
“Lake George” is a stylish-looking, low-budget crime thriller that turns into a mind-numbing mess. It’s supposed to be based on real experiences from writer/director/star Hamid Antonio Castro, but the plot is mishandled with too many unrealistic scenes. The acting is uneven, but the screenplay is by far the weakest link of the movie.
Castro makes his feature-film debut with “Lake George,” in which he plays a character of the same name. The movie takes place in New York City and in Lake George, New York. It’s unclear how much is fact and how much is fiction.
However, “Lake George” doesn’t make Castro look good as a person or as a filmmaker. The character he plays in the movie is a selfish traitor and not very smart. And the film has a lot of problems, such as plot holes and cringeworthy dialogue that veers between cliché and unrealistic.
Hamid, whose nickname is Psych, lives in New York City and works as a personal fitness trainer with wealthy clients. Psych has a reputation for being a tough trainer who gets great results. He’s well-known enough that Thrillist had a feature profile of him where the headline was a quote from Psych bragging that he gets $600,000 a year for “torturing” his clients.
Psych has this article proudly hanging on a wall in the apartment that he shares with his girlfriend Katherine (played by Cindy Kimberly), who finds out early on in the story that she’s pregnant. Katherine and Psych are both excited about becoming first-time parents. Psych has a criminal past that Katherine seems to know about, but she accepts it because Psych has seemingly turned his life around.
The couple’s domestic bliss is shattered when Psych gets a phone call from the prison where his drug dealer father Antonio (played by Antonio Castro), nicknamed Tony, is incarcerated. Tony tells Psych that a prison gang is threatening to kill Tony unless Psych can come up with $100,000 to pay off the gang in two days. (Hip-hop artist Sheck Wes has a small speaking role as one of the extortionists.) The prison gang has an outside accomplice named Juanito (played by Julio Diaz), who owns a bodega and is the contact person who’s supposed to receive the money.
Psych only has $25,000. And so, Psych enlists the help of his recently paroled younger cousin Raymond (played by Rio Thake), nicknamed Rame, which sets them on a crime spree to get the rest of the money. Psych and Rame, who have been close friends since childhood, have a complicated history because Rame went to prison for four years for a robbery that Rame and Psych committed but only Rame got caught and punished for it. Rame has now been paroled for this robbery.
A flashback shows what happened to cause Rame to get arrested. One night, Psych and Rame (both wearing Statue of Liberty masks and armed with guns) went inside an art gallery during an event. Psych and Rame pointed guns at people, stole two paintings, and then fled on foot.
Anyone watching this scene might immediately give it a side eye for how idiotic it looks. First, if you’re going to steal presumably valuable paintings, why risk doing it in front of a bunch of people during a gallery event when so many things could go wrong? Second, why flee on foot when the paintings could be hidden better in a vehicle that’s a faster getaway?
Don’t expect the movie to answer those questions. All this flashback scene proves is that the crime was very stupid and horribly planned. There’s a reason why a reality show called “America’s Dumbest Criminals” existed: There’s no shortage of people who could be on the show.
Psych and Rame are soon being hunted by police on the streets. It doesn’t take long for Rame to be caught (considering he was still carrying one of the stolen paintings), but Psych ditches the painting he had and manages to hide from the police while Psych is still outside. Obviously, Rame didn’t snitch on Psych, but the movie never explains why a police investigation couldn’t find out that Psych was the accomplice, when so many witnesses saw that there were two robbers.
Whatever the reason, Rame was the one who got punished for the crime and was sentenced to prison. Meanwhile, Psych went on with his life and “went straight” by starting his own personal fitness business. Psych expresses some guilt over letting Rame take all the blame for their crime, but he doesn’t seem to have much guilt about it, which tells you what kind of character Psych is.
Another flashback in the movie goes back to Psych’s childhood. The scene shows Psych at about 9 or 10 years old (played by Ibrahim Elouahabi) witnessing his father Tony get arrested for drug dealing. It’s later mentioned that Tony has spent so much time in prison, he was mostly an absentee father to Psych when Psych was growing up.
At first, Psych tries to legally get the remaining $75,000 that he needs. It just so happens that night, Psych has been invited to the 40th birthday party of a rich client named Damian (played by Mike Markoff), who is a hard-partying playboy. Psych brings Rame to this party.
The plan is for Psych to ask Damian to borrow the money. But things don’t turn out the way that Psych planned. The rest of the movie has some elements of slapstick comedy that don’t really fit the movie’s intended gritty tone.
One of the worst parts in the film is how Psych and Rame end up going on their misadventure with a flaky acquaintance named Carla (played by Caroline Jayna Kempczynski), who’s an annoying party girl. She calls Psych to ask for a ride, so he and Rame pick her up at a gas station. When Psych and Rame arrive at the gas station, they find out that Carla is in the middle of robbing the gas station with two male accomplices.
Carla called because she wanted to double-cross her robber cronies by ditching them, taking the money, and getting a ride on her own. And because Psych and Rame showed up during the robbery and left with Carla, now Psych and Rame are considered accomplices to this robbery. This robbery scene looks very fake and depends entirely on you believing that Carla knew that Psych and Rame would show up at the precise moment that she needed a getaway ride.
The movie is named “Lake George” because part of the crime spree involves Psych and Rame going to a remote house in the town of Lake George, New York. With Carla along for the ride, Psych and Rame travel by car to go to Lake George because they want to visit a guy named Amazing (played by Amir Kolenovic) in the quest to get the money that Psych needs. Things go wrong during this visit.
“Lake George” has all the visual elements to be better than what it turns out to be. The movie’s dialogue and scenarios become increasingly ridiculous, leading to a “twist” reveal and an underwhelming ending. In a pivotal scene where someone gets shot, one of the witness characters starts rapping a poem in response. Yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.
This movie has a problematic way of depicting women, who are either presented as sex partners or ditzes. Kimberly and the movie’s other women with speaking roles all wear low-cut tops, and the camera is placed to show leering closeups of their cleavage. Kimberly might as well be a blow-up doll because the movie makes her only purpose in the story to bring sex appeal.
Despite all the flaws and ludicrous scenes in “Lake George,” the movie has some assets. The cinematography by Guillermo Cameo is at its best when capturing the frenetic energy of a crime caper film. The music score by Kate Konn is also very good and creating the right moods for each scene. Konn has a small speaking role in the film as Kaeta, one of the guests at Damian’s party.
As for the principal cast members’ performances, Castro does an adequate job, but Thake gives the best performance, in terms of looking authentic. Thake has a magnetic and natural quality to his acting that makes many of the other cast members look like “trying too hard” amateurs. Unfortunately, one standout performance cannot save this movie from sinking into a cesspool of terribly staged scenes and questionable ideas.
The unimpressive ending of “Lake George” will make viewers wonder why writer/director/star Castro chose his alter ego to be so unlikable and what was the point of this movie. One particular character is blamed for everything, but this blame seems like a sleazy cop-out from people who were willing participants in the same crimes. And it makes “Lake George” look like a misguided film that was made as an excuse for morally bankrupt life choices.
This Is New York Pictures released “Lake George” in New York City for a limited engagement on January 31 and February 1, 2025.
