67
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanIn Lost Girls, Liz Garbus takes the serial-killer thriller and turns it on its head, insisting that we see the victims as larger than the crimes that destroyed them.
- 80The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisThere are different ways to describe Garbus’s telling of this mystery: it’s serious, respectful, gravely melancholic. Yet anger best describes the movie’s atmosphere, its overall mood and its authorial tone.
- 75RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoRogerEbert.comBrian TallericoWhile this isn't another Garbus documentary, she’s made a film with all the power of great non-fiction storytelling, and found a way to make the emotional message of this story hit home in a way that it wouldn’t have otherwise.
- 75IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandGarbus, who has long been motivated by stories about remarkable women and horrible crimes, makes a strong showing with Lost Girls, her first narrative feature in her decades-long career.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJust as it is possible to make a compelling doc without telling an entire life’s story end to end, Lost Girls proves that you can make a substantial thriller that doesn’t rely on a comforting real-world conclusion.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattEntertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattIt helps immensely that the film has an actress like Amy Ryan (Birdman, Beautiful Boy) to play Mari Gilbert, whose years-long battle to get anyone at all — the press, the police, the people of New York — to care about her daughter Shannan forms the emotional core of the story.
- 67The PlaylistJason BaileyThe PlaylistJason BaileyFor all the impressive craft, sense of harrowing anxiety and searing performances on display, Lost Girls doesn’t seem to know how to wrap things up and it hurts the picture overall.
- 67The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloWhat’s both intriguing and frustrating about the screen version, however, is the way that it flirts with a much thornier and potentially richer possibility, only to ultimately back away from that idea in favor of a straightforward plea for justice.
- 50Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshLos Angeles TimesKatie WalshThough the film eventually gets to where it needs to go, it feels scattered, stumbling over true crime tropes on the way.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyGrim and gritty though seldom emotionally affecting, Lost Girls loses momentum just like the half-assed investigation of cops whose possible corruption is coyly suggested but unexplored, leaving another hole in an already incomplete story.