Watch The Rage in Placid Lake For Free

Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent but underrated film

Excellent adaptation.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I won't go over what I expected and what I got. What I got was very colorful and engaging.Harassed eccentric kid (with friend who is a girl) repeatedly gets beat-up by bullies coupled with his no-help hippie parents. Thus, after being thrown off a building and breaking all his bones, he heals and decides to walk the straight and narrow. Despite his better self he succeeds and reaffirms his original self in the process.Just see it if you come across it. I can't dissecet too many bad things out of it. Very good film making and storytelling. But for those who saw it the level of violence really didn't match the tone of the movie.

Not to be confused with the mediocre creature feature "Placid Lake," "The Rage in Placid Lake" is a quirky romantic comedy, a fun corporate satire and a weighty coming-of-age tale. Placid Lake (Benny Lee) is a ridiculously precocious high schooler raised by new age hippie parents and is constantly picked on by bullies. In an act of "fearlessness," Placid presents a brutally honest student video at school which assuredly lands him in the hospital. Recovering from his wounds, Placid realizes a change needs to be made and formulates a plan to become normal to the disappointment of his best friend Gemma (Rose Byrne).Originally a play entitled "The Cafe Latte Kid" by Tony McNamara, the big screen adaptation is witty, charming and strangely reflective. Indie rocker Benny Lee's occasional voice over gives the script some tongue-and-cheek humor and the story becomes unpredictably fresh as Placid's inner psyche evolves. His unique charm and unconventional good looks work in his favor as he walks the line between adolescent naivety and adulthood cynicism. Likewise Rose Byrne makes Gemma uniquely fun as a prudish overachiever constantly egged on by her stepfather. The real standouts however are the supporting cast members. Miranda Richardson and Garry McDonald tread the waters well as a hippie couple with marital problems. Though originally introduced as a caricature both manage to make the best of their parts and transcend into fleshed out characters with motivations that aren't always virtuous but human. Likewise Saskia Smith and Christopher Stollery make the best of their screen time as Placid's sexually charged, emotionally distant co-worker and his boss respectively.Many might find the humor a bit different in this film. In most satires, characters are a logical extension of the subject up for satire but after the first third of the film most characters are treated with some level of civility. Placid's corporate boss for example is first seen as a soulless task master but near the end of the movie you find he's just a person who has lost himself in a corporate world. Unfortunately this movie's freshness starts to fade away in the third act as story holes are quickly plugged in like so much spackle on drywall and Placid receives his happy Hollywood ending."Rage in Placid Lake" evokes comparisons to other teen comedies like "The Breakfast Club" and "Charlie Bartlett" which attempt to mix laughs with jolts of cinematic seriousness. It certainly succeeded in the former, but not in the later. Although not as scrabbled as "Charlie Bartlett," "The Rage in Lake Placid" isn't as composed as it should be. The jokes are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny but those moments are few and far in between and the love story lacks evolution. At points it seemed Rose Byrne could have been replaced with a male friend and most of the plot points would be the same throughout (though the end kiss would be a little awkward).I would recommend this to anyone of sound mind and body but not strongly enough to warrant required watching status. Though it has a uniqueness that sticks with you after the credits roll, it only raises to the occasion of date night filler.http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/

Aussie singer-songwriter Ben Lee makes an auspicious acting debut in Tony McNamara's "The Rage in Placid Lake", a satirical comedy-drama that could easily be construed as Australia's answer to "Ferris Bueller's Day-Off", or "Say Anything". Placid(Lee) has a benevolent anti-authoritarian streak that's akin to Bueller's, and his partner-in-crime, Gemma(Rose Byrne), is beautiful and brainy like Diana Court in the Cameron Crowe-directed classic(incidentally, Lee is engaged to Ione Skye), who hides her obvious feminine wiles behind a pair of unflattering black, horn-rimmed glasses.In the opening scene, "The Rage in Placid Lake" establishes the pair as outsiders, people who won't join the party; quite literally, since both Placid and Gemma would rather watch television in an adjoining room than drink and be merry like the other high school graduate revelers. Their friendship is put to the test when Placid undergoes a metamorphosis while immobilized in a full-body cast. His newfound conformity with social norms(get a job) compels Gemma to make a life-affirming decision(have sex) as a way of keeping pace with her best, and perhaps, only friend. By the film's end, the pair of fringe-dwellers are happily headed towards a different sort of symbiotic relationship."The Rage in Placid Lake" has a lot to say about being raised by hippies. It sucks. Unlike Tim Hunter's "River's Edge", in which a sour former-flower child asks her son(Keanu Reeves) if he stole her weed, Placid's parents are lovable potheads; just a pair of eccentric free-spirits who'd encourage their only child to wear a dress to school. This grave parental miscalculation of judgment undoubtedly is the genesis of Placid's rage. Nobody cries in "The Rage in Placid Lake"; it's not that kind of movie, instead the filmmaker utilizes quirkiness instead of overripe melodrama. Placid is a very unhappy, young man. In an earlier scene, rather than shoot a gun, he shoots film, as a weapon against his parents Doug(Garry MacDonald) and Sylvia(Miranda Richardson), and the students and faculty at his prep school."The Rage in Placid Lake" should have received a wider release in the States because this Australian import is a deceptively slack, but effective(albeit roundabout)satire about school shootings and their alienated trigger-men. It has none of the sanctimony that plagued the well-meaning, but ultimately didactic domestic indie "American Gun". "The Rage in Placid Lake gives its audience room to breathe; the movie's oblique treatment of this international epidemic never overstates itself with pontificating speeches, or authorial gestures. This somewhat meandering, low-wattage dramedy is a "what if?" movie. What if the shooter survived and turned his life around?

I really enjoyed this movie. I won't lie to you though it isn't uber-brilliant, deep or ultra-funny. It is the sort movie you watch late at night when your expectations are low. If you're looking for a movie that doesn't make you think too much this is it.That being said I did find it funny, if somewhat puerile at times. I could relate to the main protagonist. The story moved along at a good pace and didn't get bogged down. I really wanted to see how it would end up.I like that it didn't suffer from the usually Australian movie problem of "lets show you how uniquely Australian we can make this film" it just let itself be. It showed a side of Australia that wasn't purely rural or suburban.Also Rose Byrne is absolutely gorgeous. I think I want to marry her!