The Lost City of Z
Amazon Studios | Release Date: April 14, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
38
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerApr 13, 2017
The Lost City of Z is as much about the struggle of progress as the real-life story it’s telling, and Gray sharply observes the ways in which mankind continuously tears itself apart, usually in the name of progress. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyApr 12, 2017
Through Gray’s orchestration of themes, ironies, and flashes of transcendence, the thick of the jungle becomes as haunting and multivalent an image as the hidden city. It is that which we all disappear into. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriApr 12, 2017
Gradually, the old-world meticulousness of Gray's filmmaking gives way to something more abstract, a drifting impermanence, as if the director were trying to capture — without losing any of his visual grace or sweep — the wide, beautiful unknowability of existence. Read full review
100
Total FilmJane CrowtherMar 20, 2017
With lush visuals, intelligent performances and a lingering lyricism, this is an instant classic that cements Hunnam’s star power. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 16, 2017
The grandeur of this movie is off the charts. For a certain kind of old-school film fan, someone who believes in shapely, classical proportions and an epic yarn told over time, it will be the revelation of the year. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 15, 2017
A film as transporting, profound and staggering in its emotional power as anything I’ve seen in the cinema in years. Read full review
100
TheWrapDan CallahanOct 16, 2016
The Lost City of Z feels like a clear artistic advance for Gray, who proves himself here as one of our finest and most distinctive living filmmakers. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 14, 2017
The movie may, in the end, frustrate your desire for straight-up thrills and clear answers, but its irresolution is masterful — sincere, generous and entirely appropriate to the deeply searching story it has to tell. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisApr 13, 2017
There’s much to love in this film, but what lingers are those lapidary details that often go missing in stories about great men, as if they had built the world alone and no child had ever raced down a road waving goodbye as a father disappeared into history. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekApr 11, 2017
Pictures with the grand sweep and dreamy energy of The Lost City of Z don’t come along every year—they barely come along at all. This is itself a message in a bottle, a missive from a lost city of movies. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 16, 2016
The Lost City of Z is a rare piece of contemporary classical cinema; its virtues of methodical storytelling, traditional style and obsessive theme are ones that would have been recognized and embraced anytime from the 1930s through the 1970s. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 20, 2017
Slipping in references to everyone from Kubrick to Fellini, Gray creates a truly intoxicating experience, overwhelming in the best possible way. It is this close to being an all-time classic, if only Charlie Hunnam’s central performance as Fawcett didn’t slip out of Gray’s period trappings every now and then (you can’t help but wonder what Gray’s long-time collaborator, Joaquin Phoenix, would have done with the role). Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonApr 20, 2017
If you long for a film in the tradition of such grown-up entertainments as “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The English Patient,” this is one to get lost in. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 20, 2017
This is a really good film. It just isn't the traditionally rousing one many will expect, and the trailers promise. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 20, 2017
This is the type of adventure that transports you to a world so exotic and lush and mysterious and dangerous, it feels as if we’re on a different planet. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzApr 14, 2017
Those who don't know anything about the tale going in (a category that included me) might be gobsmacked by what happens. The order of events doesn't stick to any established commercial movie template. What happens feels as random yet eerily inevitable as life itself. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 11, 2017
Hunnam is slow to grab us as Fawcett, but the implosive force of his performance soon takes hold. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezOct 15, 2016
The Lost City of Z links every weathered look that Percy Fawcett throws to the heart of his spiritual yearning. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 14, 2017
The Lost City of Z cannot compare in intensity with Herzog’s film, with its magisterial delirium. But, in his own way, Gray is as unremittingly obsessed as Herzog. Read full review
83
The Film StageNick NewmanOct 18, 2016
The lushness of its images, how they simultaneously recall and move forward, in concert with its confidence in its pacing, as a work of both writing and editing, are a powerful thing taken in-tandem. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 20, 2017
The Lost City of Z is a throwback, an epic film about a grand adventure. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 20, 2017
An adventure -- a wonderful, old-school adventure, the likes of which we don't see enough of any more. Lost cities notwithstanding, that makes it a kind of treasure all its own. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsApr 13, 2017
Aside from the captivating cinematography, the narrative is adventurous and existential. Not only does it examine the ethos of the early 20th century — including wartime — it also surveys humanity as a whole. It aims to dispel a superiority complex but manages to stay bold and progressive throughout. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushMatt SingerApr 10, 2017
Its unhurried pacing, complex themes, and magnificent visuals that must be seen on a big screen make it feel like an artifact from an era of big-budget filmmaking that has been rendered essentially extinct by the franchisification of Hollywood. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinMar 13, 2017
Solid and stately, a ’70s-feeling jungle adventure film that’s more of a thought-provoker than an excitement-inducer. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleFeb 15, 2017
An ornately mounted story marked with tints of antiquarianism, The Lost City of Z is perhaps Gray's most accomplished film to date. Read full review
80
The GuardianJordan HoffmanOct 16, 2016
Much will be said about Gray’s cinematic craft (as is often the case when a director works with cinematographer Darius Khondji) but beneath the slow roll down the river pierced by arrows from unseen, defensive natives, there’s a fascinating, mercurial screenplay that offers just enough to keep you journeying for more insight. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenApr 20, 2017
Hunnam speaks in low tones, practically murmuring his lines in many scenes, which seem at odds with the underlying fierceness of Fawcett’s resolve. His manner is almost diffident, yet he’s steadfast in his purposefulness. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryApr 20, 2017
In an effort to make Fawcett a logical, upstanding guy, the story never fully convinces us of his obsession with returning to find the lost city. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 19, 2017
The movie is 141 minutes long but you rarely feel its weight; that’s how confident a filmmaker Gray has become. All The Lost City of Z lacks is a great leading actor, someone magnificent and flawed like a Peter O’Toole. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedApr 18, 2017
The movie has its share of flaws, but you can’t say Charlie Hunnam, who plays the lead, has no charisma, or the story lacks excitement. Read full review
75
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 16, 2016
The Lost City Of Z won’t be for all viewers, but its delicate devotion to itself is something sure to inspire admiration and obsessives. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 11, 2017
The Lost City of Z(ed) isn’t as expansive as you might initially wish but still pulls you in and along. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 10, 2017
Gray is hampered, to an extent, by treading in the tracks of Werner Herzog, who went to South America with Klaus Kinski, his leading man (or, as Herzog calls him, “my best fiend”), and returned with the extraordinary “Aguirre, Wrath of God” (1972) and “Fitzcarraldo” (1982). Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 16, 2016
The Lost City of Z is a finely crafted, elegantly shot, sharply sincere movie that is more absorbing than powerful. It makes no major dramatic missteps, yet it could have used an added dimension — something to make the two-hour-and-20-minute running time feel like a transformative journey rather than an epic anecdotal crusade. Read full review
67
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonApr 13, 2017
Instead of a thrilling climax, he chooses to let the story evaporate into the Amazon fog. Yet this odd film left a chill in my bones that I'll be thinking about all summer. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 22, 2017
The ending is muddled as an unsuccessful attempt is made to provide closure to a story that, if told frankly, shouldn’t have one. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 18, 2017
“Lost City” aims for a sort of new-fashioned old-fashioned approach to this subject, and that unfortunately makes it more Earthbound than soaring, more pedestrian than epic. Read full review
60
Screen DailyGraham FullerOct 16, 2016
Lost City is the acme of a 21st century prestige picture. Sadly, however, it is one that is also deeply flawed. Gray’s most ambitious movie yet is marred by a story arc that fails to rise or reach a climax, unnatural-sounding expository dialogue, and an unforgivable lack of thrills. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 20, 2017
It’s Miller, however, who gives the most affecting performance, in that we see the light fade from her eyes. What an awful thing this husband did to her — to praise her for courage and then use all her courage against her. Read full review
50
SlateJune ThomasApr 13, 2017
Given Fawcett’s trailblazing achievements — and Gray’s choice to film in difficult circumstances deep in the Colombian jungle — the film is oddly restrained. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredLauren Humphries-BrooksOct 16, 2016
Despite gorgeous cinematography and a strong cast, The Lost City of Z is a shallow and overly romantic film that falls into the trap of hero worship. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisApr 19, 2017
Despite its best intentions, The Lost City of Z never finds itself, doomed to aimlessly wander to an unsatisfying conclusion of a dream that betrays the best of men. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 13, 2017
The book’s subtitle was “A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon,” and the film gets that part wrong. It’s deadly dull and conspicuously short on obsessiveness. Read full review
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