Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Los Angeles Plays Itself

EMAILPRINTThom Andersen Productions

Los Angeles Plays Itself reviews
85
7.8 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Thom Andersen

Directed by: Thom Andersen

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 28, 2004

Running Time: 169 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Encke King (narrator)

This documentary examines how Los Angeles has been portrayed by Hollywood and the impact of the movie industry on the city.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Smart, funny, stimulating.

Read Full Review >
100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Mesmerizing.

Read Full Review >
100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It is a remarkable work, quite likely the best documentary on the City of Angels ever made.

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Chronicle John McMurtrie

Ambitious and brilliant.

Read Full Review >
91

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Gliding from the physical to the metaphysical, Andersen reveals how films like ''Chinatown'' effectively remade the reality of Los Angeles, replacing history with myth in a way that now anchors the city more than that history itself does.

Read Full Review >
90

TV Guide Ken Fox

Thom Andersen's idiosyncratic, three-hour masterpiece is both a dazzling work of film criticism and a fascinating piece of urban anthropology.

Read Full Review >
90

Variety Robert Koehler

Los Angeles may be the most photographed city in the world, but it has never have been captured with such complex layers of meaning and fascination as in Thom Andersen's remarkable Los Angeles Plays Itself.

Read Full Review >
90

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Dazzling cinema-essay.

Read Full Review >
90

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Three words of advice to those who haven't yet seen it: Run, don't walk. Composed of excerpts from hundreds of locally shot movies past and present -- from grade-A prestige pictures to unrepentant grade-Z schlock -- Los Angeles Plays Itself serves as Andersen's exhaustive but never exhausting attempt to reconcile the myriad identities of the world's moviemaking capital.

Read Full Review >
88

New York Post Lou Lumenick

So terrifically entertaining, it would be a shame if it didn't inspire a companion piece on New York.

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice J. Hoberman

It is an essay in film form with near-universal interest and a remarkable degree of synthesis.

Read Full Review >
80

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

A terrific cinematic essay that will have a very, very long shelf life.

Read Full Review >
80

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

What gives Los Angeles Plays Itself its extraordinary density is the way Andersen transforms a cliché into a metaphysical truth that encompasses far more than L.A.

Read Full Review >
75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The commentary alternates between witty insight and opinionated bunk, but it's always fun -- and a must-see for movie buffs.

Read Full Review >
75

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Gives us a fresh way to think not only about movies but about the town in which so many of them are made, and in that regard it's kind of amazing.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

What Andersen does best is capture the sense of growing up and living among the landmarks of Hollywood's authentic back lot.

Read Full Review >
60

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Los Angeles Plays Itself, in spite of its length, is rarely tedious, an achievement it owes mainly to the movies it prodigiously excerpts.

Read Full Review >
40

Empire Nick De Semlyen

Andersen makes a far from inspiring guide, intoning his humourless points in a dry-as-powder monotone.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kelly P. gave it a10:
if you have any interest in film or cities you must see this film.

Len W. gave it a9:
I have to admit this was a bit long, but was amazingly thought-provoking. Fascinating study of the ways Los Angeles is used and protrayed in the films of American and international directors. More information here than many college-level film courses. You'll find yourself thinking about this film for days after you see it.

Mark gave it a3:
The video quality is terrible. It's way too long and toward the end he drones on and on about racism. It's like a bad PBS show, only more liberal. I'm not surprised the critics love it.

Craig J. gave it a9:
Amazing, funny, sad and very moving.

adam g. gave it an8:
Could use a little editing, especially toward the end, but overall lovingly-crafted, insightful and authoritative.

John N. gave it a 6:
Film too long.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use