Lake City with Sissy Spacek, Troy Garrity, Hunter Hill, Perry Moore, Weiman Seid and Mark Johnson
Thursday, 7:00 pm, Culbreth AND Saturday, 10:15 pm, Regal Downtown #3
Directors: Hunter Hill, Perry Moore
Writers: Hunter Hill, Perry Moore
Cinematographer: Robert Gantz
Cast: Sissy Spacek, Troy Garity, Rebecca Romijn, Dave Matthews
Running Time: 92 min
Filmed in the Richmond area and featuring local luminaries Sissy Spacek and Dave Matthews, Lake City captures a slice of small-town Virginia life with underlying layers of Southern gothic tragedy. Perry Moore and Mark Johnson, who met at the Virginia Film Festival when Moore was a U.Va. student, and who have been producing partners on the Chronicles of Narnia films, collaborated on this very Virginia movie. Moore co-wrote and co-directed the film with his partner, Hunter Hill, and brought on board a third U.Va. alumnus, leading independent film and talent publicist Weiman Seid, as executive producer.
Maggie (Spacek), an independent woman who lives alone on her Virginia farm, finds her estranged son Billy (Troy Garity) has returned unannounced to his ancestral home after fleeing from a drug deal gone bad. Billy’s girlfriend, Hope (Drea de Matteo), has vanished, along with a cache of drugs belonging to a dealer (Matthews), leaving her son Clayton (Colin Ford) to Billy’s care. Not knowing where else to go, Billy, with Clayton in tow, returns to Lake City to hide out. Forced to leave his current life behind, Billy must confront the demons from his past that he had tried to escape.
Memorable acting marks this independent drama. Sissy Spacek and Troy Garity convey the tension and buried emotion in their relationship with great realism and subtlety. Colin Ford is perfect as the young child out of his element, and Matthews is impressive as the chilling drug dealer who shows surprising humanity. Rebecca Romijn shines as the local cop and friend from Billy’s past, and Keith Carradine is wonderful as a friendly auto mechanic with a crush on Maggie.
Especially striking is cinematographer Robert Gantz’s capturing of Southern landscapes and settings, from the lush Virginia hills to the seedy motels where Matthews’ drug dealer plies his trade.
