The Rage in Placid Lake

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Precocious, bohemian teenager Placid Lake, finishes high school and decides to do the one thing that will annoy his new age parents the most--go straight! With a few weeks spent reading a library of self-help manuals, Placid has it all sorted out--and he has the haircut and the cheap suit to prove it.

Can Placid Lake retire his rage in the pursuit of beige; embrace conformity and leap on the fast track to corporate success. Will his 'brainiac' friend Gemma be able to talk him out of this economic rationalist madness? And will poor Doug and Sylvia survive the ignominy of having a son with a burgeoning future in insurance? Never underestimate the evil of banality.

This Australian gem, written and directed by Tony McNamara, was nominated for multiple awards among moviegoers and critics in Australia, and won Best Screenplay (AFI), and the Australian Writers Guild.

The movie can be viewed on Hulu.

Tropes used in The Rage in Placid Lake include:
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Placid is so embarrassed by his hippie parents (who among other things send him to his first day of school in a girl's uniform) that he deliberately becomes the ultimate conformist.
  • Brainy Brunette: Gemma.
  • The Cameo: Claire Danes at the insurance agency.
  • Hands Off Parenting: Placid's parents
  • Conversational Troping: Placid and Gemma, when Placid leaves for work at the insurance agency. Played more as banter than pointed discussion.
  • Cool Loser: Placid could be considered this. Potentially averted, since it's brought up that he convinced one of the popular girls (Jenny) to have sex with him. See Manipulative Bastard.
  • Dragged Into Drag: Young Placid's parents sending him to his first day of school in a dress. Subverted slightly by the fact that Placid's mother is trying to challenge gender stereotypes.

"Darling, just remember you're challenging their pre-conceived notions of sexuality."

Jenny: You tricked me into having sex with you!
Placid: How? By talking to you? By connecting with something deep within you?
Jenny: Yes! ...Don't look at me like that.
Placid: I'm looking at a facade, on top of a person who I think has something special inside of her, who hasn't got the guts to show it, who wants to hide who she really is, but is torn because she wants to burst out and say, "This is who I am, what I want, but have I the courage to be free of them?"
Jenny: God. You're doing it again, aren't you?

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