Lake Tahoe (2009)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 562
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Movie Info
Former music video director Fernando Eimbcke continues to hone his feature film career with this drama concerning a 14-year-old boy who makes the transition from childhood to adulthood while attempting to repair an irreplaceable gift. The final gift that Juan ever received from his father was a car. Now Juan has crashed that car, and he's determined to get it in working order again. As Juan searches the city for car parts, he gradually begins to realize that the decisions he makes over the
Feb 9, 2008 Wide
Nov 10, 2009
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All Critics (18) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (4) | DVD (1)
Fortunately, Eimbcke's laconic if fanciful storytelling strengths ring more true than his somewhat artificial and hackneyed visual style, which includes a penchant for lengthy wide-angle shots that make the world look like a feverishly alien place.
Top CriticWith Lake Tahoe, Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke proves himself adept at turning a blank screen into a work of art.
So different from the usual fare that it might have arrived from another galaxy.
Inspired by a childhood accident that befell director Fernando Eimbcke soon after his father's death, this low-key character study is a beguiling paradox of Mexican suburban splendor masking personal grief.
Coming down from the Saturday sugar rush of his 2006 comedy Duck Season, Mexican auteur Fernando Eimbcke's lovely, Yucatán-set dramedy drifts by on a similar deadpan wave of static vignettes and lingering pauses that must be 10 months pregnant.
It ultimately sags under the weight of its bloated silences and stagnant story line.
[Eimbcke finds] warmth, humor and grace in these ragged environments. Once we learn the cause of Juan's malaise, images we've already seen take on extraordinary significance.
[Lake Tahoe is] a small, calm movie that will take you into another world...
Eimbcke's Jarmusch-ian comedy is laced with something stronger.
Mexican writer-director Eimbcke takes an unfortunate if not unusual route other filmmakers have traveled following a successful debut and gets self-indulgent with his follow-up.
An offbeat droll black comedy that worked for me in the Zen way it made its seemingly simple tale poignant and compelling in such a unique way.
If you're patient -- the beautifully composed wide-angle camerawork helps -- the reason for the protagonist's down-in-the-mouth behavior emerges, and finally from the languor comes a sweet little payoff.
Eimbcke's world -- sun-baked and lazy and almost devoid of activity or adults -- may seem aimless and pointless, but he manages a delightfully complete wrap-up and payoff.
If a dramatic action occurs in Lake Tahoe, a new film from Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, you probably won't see it.
A simply complex, intelligent and quietly absorbing drama with just the right blend of humor, tenderness and cinéma vérité realism.
Could be quirky enough to ensnare devotees of indie film.
has an even less assuming sense of comedy to it but is far more consistent in its gags
Eimbcke has an undeniable gift for deftly doleful wavelengths.
Lake Tahoe confirms Embicke as a promising young talent, but simultaneously raises some worries that he's only able to offer a small, singular form of pleasure.
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"Lake Tahoe" is filmed with a stationary camera, usually at a distance from the action, which is a style that usually puts me on edge. However, this time it works well with the deadpan comedy of Juan's odyssey. Even with an extreme tonal shift that occurs halfway through when a vital piece of information is nonchalantly dropped in the viewers' laps, the movie remains a bittersweet look at how we are never alone as we think we are.