L.I.E.
New Yorker Films | Release Date: September 7, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
An achievement of accomplished filmmaking and superb acting, L.I.E. puts you in the tough spot of unraveling how you feel about what you've viewed. Read full review
90
New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo
Despite a little rough stuff here and there, this is one of the more insightful and affecting teen-trauma films of recent years. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's a powerful and provocative achievement from a first-time filmmaker of enormous promise. Read full review
90
Washington PostRita Kempley
Gripping, troubling and deftly acted. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Dano is a real find in this daunting role about a teenager's identity crisis. The subject of the movie is dicey but ultimately deeply rewarding. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
One of the year's most unsettling -- and perhaps most illuminating -- films.
88
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Superior and original filmmaking. You won't be able to take your eyes off it.
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
L.I.E. has embraced tragedy, folly, perversity and outrageous dark humor. Like "Happiness" and "American Beauty," it takes an unflinching look at the darker aspects of life in American suburbia. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
At its best, L.I.E. offers a rich, dark, bitter slice of contemporary life. But the film's arty embellishments undermine its bleak vision, making it, in the end, a little too easy to take. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
It’s too bad that at the very end L.I.E. settles for an easy, melodramatic resolution; it flies in the face of everything that makes this perceptive, original movie so special.
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A mature, insightful and extremely well-acted study of a boy at a crossroads in his life, and a doomed, tortured man who, consciously or not, longs for some kind of redemption, before it's too late. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
An original, well-crafted plea that uses restraint instead of titillation to make a cautionary tale that aches with pathos and power. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
You know you're in the hands of a born filmmaker when he floods a scene with danger and excitement and, at the same time, tempers it with something more delicate -- a languor of the everyday. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A disturbing and provocative study of adolescence and isolation. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The ending is a cheap shot. An inconclusive ending would have been better, and perhaps more honest. The movie and the ending have so little in common that it's as if the last scene is spliced in from a different film. Read full review
70
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
In a role that challenges our very notion of morality, Cox comes across as both predatory and fatherly, sometimes at once, in an acting turn as astonishing as it is stomach-turning.
70
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Preposterous enough to entertain. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Realist fairy tale. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The subject matter is certainly controversial -- it's not every day that we see a sympathetic portrayal of a pedophile -- but Cuesta avoids the taint of salaciousness, thanks in large part to a brilliant performance from Cox. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
A paradox, balancing the contradictions and ambiguities of its characters and setting with a careful hand that rarely falters, even though the film seems dramatically thin at times. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Depicts the bleak suburban milieu in a manner that avoids exploitation. Read full review
60
SalonCharles Taylor
Though I admire much of what Cuesta does in L.I.E., the film didn't give me much pleasure. I didn't find it unpleasant or repulsive; it's just that I felt he was too much outside the story. Read full review
60
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
The real reason to see it is Brian Cox, best known for being filmdom's other Hannibal Lecter (he played the role in Michael Mann's "Manhunter").
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Paints a sincere and serious portrait of the seductiveness of evil and the self-destructive nature of depravity. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
A provocative, upsetting film. Read full review
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