TARA MIELE
THE LAKE EFFECT
PREMIERED RAINDANCE LONDON
WINNER: BEST FEATURE - MOONDANCE; BEST SCREENPLAY, BEST ENSEMBLE - PHOENIX FILM FESTIVAL
Starring Ross Partridge, Kay Panabaker, Tara Summers
Rob Lawson's perpetual quest for success is interrupted when his estranged daughter shows up pregnant, challenging him to be a father before he becomes a grandfather.
From Film Threat: THE LAKE EFFECT, a well-acted and terrifically realized relationship dramedy about a guy who’s mid-life crisis forces him to finally grow up. I found it to be an an eerily relatable movie for me – almost too relatable. (This flick would take the Best Ensemble Acting and Best Screenplay awards that night. After seeing it, neither win was a surprise.)
From M Live: ...a notable quality of writer-director Tara Miele’s screenplay is its willingness to see things from the point of view of everyone involved. A less thoughtful writer would have made Rob simply a derelict dad who wasn’t ready to stop being a baby long enough to raise a baby. But he’s actually a would-be entrepreneur who’s wrestling with major self-esteem issues (some of them can be traced back to his own father) that have left him uncertain about how he can even provide for himself and his wife, much less a family.