Title: Caddo Lake
MPA Rating: R
Director: Logan George, Celine Held
Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Lauren Ambrose
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins

What It Is: Eight-year-old Anna (Caroline Falk) has disappeared, prompting the entire community to search for the lost girl. Among those searching are her “sister,” Ellie (Scanlen), and her “mother,” Celeste (Ambrose). Meanwhile, a young man named Paris (O’Brien) is investigating the mysterious death of his mother, who, like him, struggled with random seizures. As Paris digs deeper, he uncovers a shocking truth—something neither he nor we could ever have imagined. There’s a mystery on Caddo Lake, and it’s about to come full circle.

What We Think: The narrative of this film is, by far, its most compelling aspect. As the labyrinthine tale begins to unfurl and the story falls into place, you start to notice cracks in the narrative, even though it presents a fascinating take on transtemporal travel. The cracks become apparent around the one-hour mark, when we begin to understand who Lauren Ambrose’s character really is.

At this point, everything starts to feel a bit silly. Dylan O’Brien’s accent is distractingly bad, which undermines his character—a character we’re supposed to empathize with. While he tries his best to overcome this shortcoming and the material itself is decent, I couldn’t shake the sense of mediocrity that seems to permeate the film.

There’s a reason this ended up as a direct-to-Max release: it’s just not quite good enough.

Our Grade: C+, This is on Max, so if you really feel compelled to endure this laborious exercise in mediocrity… go ahead. However, if you’re a normal human being who trusts our seasoned judgment, you’ll choose almost anything else on the streaming platform. There’s plenty of great content to explore.

For those craving a better Dylan O’Brien performance, there’s a far superior film from 2024 that I can’t wait for you all to watch—and for me to review. Stay tuned for that one.

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