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Lost In La Mancha
IFC Films
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for language
Starring
Jeff Bridges (narrator),
Terry Gilliam,
Johnny Depp,
Jean Rochefort,
René Cleitman,
Benjamín Fernández,
and
Vanessa Paradis
Lost In La Mancha may be the first 'un-making of' documentary; the story of a film that does not exist. Instead of a sanitized glimpse behind the scenes, this film offers a unique, in-depth look at the harsher realities of filmmaking. With drama that ranges from personal conflicts to epic storms, this is a record of a film disintegrating. (Quixote Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Keith Fulton
Louis Pepe
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Keith Fulton
Louis Pepe
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 24, 2003
Video: June 24, 2003
Theatrical: January 31, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
93 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA / UK |
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
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Wildly sad, funny and terrific documentary.
100
Newsweek
David Ansen
An excruciatingly entertaining portrait of the filmmaking process that no Hollywood studio would ever allow to be shown. But Gilliam, bless his impish, obsessive heart, is anything but a Hollywood type.
100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This is a sad and funny true-life tale that speaks volumes about the difficulties of independent filmmaking.
90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Watching it is like being trapped in one of those nightmares where you need to get somewhere, fast, and you're distracted and delayed at every turn. Only in this case, the nightmare is happening to someone else, and it's costing an awful lot of money.
90
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Records an accident while it's happening, revealing a situation that makes you laugh again and again while weeping, metaphorically at least, for the sheer frustration of it all.
90
Dallas Observer
Bill Gallo
An ideal film for movie buffs, who are bound to delight in each new misfortune even as they sympathize with the documentarians' sometimes inflated vision of a tortured genius at work.
90
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
A mesmerizing documentary.
88
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
This documentary could have been a simple downer. Instead, it's a giddy, manic-depressive roller coaster - because it brings us eye to eye with Gilliam.
83
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Nothing more than a modest, streamlined ''making of...'' diary about a movie that never got made -- it's ''Project Greenlight'' with bigger stars and bigger disasters.
80
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Too bad for Gilliam and everyone involved, but in the departments of spectacle and schadenfreude, great fun for us.
80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Lost in La Mancha, a documentary about a movie that never got made, is more involving -- and heartbreaking -- than many movies that do get made.
80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
At once bitterly funny and devastating, Lost In La Mancha sides with Gilliam in form and spirit, piecing together the train wreck with snaky humor and interludes that cleverly mimic his Monty Python collage animations.
80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
The documentary is fascinating, but hardly enjoyable. It's like watching ants eat an elephant.
80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Like rubbernecking motorists, we can't help but watch with lurid fascination.
80
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
After watching the fascinating and compelling new documentary Lost in La Mancha, you may forever wonder how it is that movies are made at all.
80
Variety
Derek Elley
There's no shortage of disaster stories in the history of film production, but none have been recorded with such frankness, immediacy and aching sense of disappointment.
80
Time
Richard Schickel
It will fascinate and possibly even delight cinephiles. Who does not enjoy gawking at accidents, particularly those in which there are no fatalities and the sad story unfolds in almost slow-motion clarity?
80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The equation of Gilliam with Quixote is so obvious to everyone involved that Fulton and Pepe can hardly be blamed for adopting it.
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
A fascinating record of how the movie fell apart, piece by piece, with everything short of a natural disaster conspiring against the filmmaker.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Lost in La Mancha, which started life as one of those documentaries you get free on a DVD, ended as the record of swift and devastating disaster.
75
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
When Gilliam is finally forced to admit defeat, it is nothing short of heartbreaking - for audiences, too, as the few shots that made it into the can hold such promise.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
It is an honest, dumbstruck, not particularly deep demonstration of how insanely difficult it is to make a movie, any movie, no matter how blithe the end result may appear on screen.
75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Lost in La Mancha basically catches "Don Quixote" in free fall…It's our loss nonetheless. Gilliam is one of the great film fantasists of our age, and one expects he would have done Cervantes proud.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann
Captures one of the wildest, most heartbreaking episodes in Gilliam's career.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Fulton and Pepe have created an extraordinary document. Hilarious and heartbreaking.
75
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
You can interpret Lost in La Mancha as a sort of triumph of the creative spirit. Gilliam's darkest gallows humor always comes with a smile.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
In the end, it's not much fun to watch a brave artist getting his dream kicked out of him.
70
Slate
David Edelstein
Squirmily funny documentary.
67
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Throughout, the documentary is fun and engaging, even whimsical when using (to good effect) illustrations and Gilliam’s own storyboards.
67
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Privy to virtually all phases of the debacle, the filmmakers have created the behind-the-camera equivalent of a slo-mo crash test.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Gilliam himself is a joy to behold. His wit stays sharp even as his fortunes dull, and the conditions that conspire against him only prove the mettle in our man of La Mancha.
60
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
You can't help feeling that what this enterprise required was Louis B. Mayer, or, though one has no wish to be cruel, Harry Cohn. [3 February 2003, p.98]
60
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The film should be required viewing for all aspiring filmmakers, but the story's road-accident appeal is universal.
30
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
The movie neither inspires us to pine for what might've been nor makes Gilliam-style filmmaking seem like a noble pursuit.
20
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
So this is not, as vaunted, a documentary about a film destroyed by temperaments and tizzies. It is the account of a medical catastrophe that could have spoiled the opening of a supermarket.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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Chad S. gave it a 7:
