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Los Angeles Plays Itself
Metascore
85 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    100
    Smart, funny, stimulating.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: John McMurtrie
    100
    Ambitious and brilliant.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    100
    It is a remarkable work, quite likely the best documentary on the City of Angels ever made.
  4. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    100
    Mesmerizing.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    91
    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.
  6. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    90
    Thom Andersen's idiosyncratic, three-hour masterpiece is both a dazzling work of film criticism and a fascinating piece of urban anthropology.
  7. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    90
    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.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    90
    Dazzling cinema-essay.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    90
    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.
  10. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    88
    So terrifically entertaining, it would be a shame if it didn't inspire a companion piece on New York.
  11. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Frank Scheck
    80
    A terrific cinematic essay that will have a very, very long shelf life.
  12. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    80
    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.
  13. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    80
    It is an essay in film form with near-universal interest and a remarkable degree of synthesis.
  14. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    What Andersen does best is capture the sense of growing up and living among the landmarks of Hollywood's authentic back lot.
  15. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    75
    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.
  16. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    75
    The commentary alternates between witty insight and opinionated bunk, but it's always fun -- and a must-see for movie buffs.
  17. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    60
    Los Angeles Plays Itself, in spite of its length, is rarely tedious, an achievement it owes mainly to the movies it prodigiously excerpts.
  18. Empire
    Reviewed by: Nick De Semlyen
    40
    Andersen makes a far from inspiring guide, intoning his humourless points in a dry-as-powder monotone.
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