Lael Loewenstein
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:
Boxoffice Magazine,
Los Angeles Times,
Variety,
FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
Critics' Group:
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Movie Reviews Only
| T-Meter | Title | Year | Review | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97% | The Reason I Jump (2021) |
A beautiful film that goes very deeply into autism and makes these people come very much alive. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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| 96% | The Dissident (2020) |
It is as suspenseful as Citizenfour and as well-made as Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. This in itself takes so much material and lays it out almost like a lawyer would. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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| 75% | Pieces of a Woman (2020) |
Very powerfully portrayed, particularly by Kirby's performance. She gives all this nuance to the portrait of a woman trying to find herself. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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| 92% | Herself (2021) |
It's got a real quiet intensity about it that comes from Clare Dunn's careful, meticulous, beautifully felt performance. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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| 98% | One Night in Miami (2020) |
[Regina King] has a real sense of how to let a scene unfurl naturally, but also how to frame, cut away, and let her actors take a beat at just the right moments. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jan 12, 2021
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| No Score Yet | Everything for a Reason (2000) |
An earnest, intermittently charming romantic comedy. - Variety
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| Posted Dec 30, 2020
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| 97% | Billie (2020) |
A mixed documentary -- I would have preferred it without the framing device -- but I thought there were some redeeming qualities. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 69% | Godmothered (2020) |
It's kind of a rehash, but there were some cute moments and a lovely cameo from Jane Curtin. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 93% | Another Round (Druk) (2020) |
This is a mixed bag. I generally like Thomas Vinterberg... [Another Round] sort of fell apart in the second-to-third act, but it does pick up. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 34% | Half Brothers (2020) |
The actors bring some commendable lightness to it and there are a number of scenes that work for me despite being utterly predictable. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 79% | Baby God (2020) |
It's both horrible and riveting. You just can't look away. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| No Score Yet | Ending Disease (2020) |
A tremendously important film... There is so much in here that it's almost hard to keep keep track of all the different stories, but they all dovetail in many ways. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 92% | Dear Santa (2020) |
By turns funny, tender, and just so sweet and endearing. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 57% | The Prom (2020) |
It could have been stronger had it been perhaps shorter, but the message is important and lovely. It has some redeeming moments a couple of sweet, catchy songs, so you can't fault it that. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 100% | 76 Days (2020) |
A raw and searing documentary that is very much in the vérité, fly-on-the-wall school of filmmaking. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 83% | Mank (2020) |
If there ever was an argument for seeing something on the big screen, it would be this. It is wonderfully, visually evocative of Citizen Kane... and it's a shame to see that on the small screen. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Dec 7, 2020
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| 100% | Where She Lies (2020) |
A really compelling story and a decent documentary that I wish there had been different footage available for. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 6, 2020
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| 62% | The Informer (2020) |
I was held along with the suspense and I enjoyed it enough to stay along for the ride. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 6, 2020
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| 100% | City Hall (2020) |
To say it is granular would be an understatement. It's also got a whole host of wonderful little rewards in it. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 6, 2020
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| 75% | Maybe Next Year (2019) |
Heartrending, personality-bearing, and full of the grit and the glory of the underdog. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 6, 2020
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| 83% | Proxima (2019) |
Extraordinary... A really powerful film. Eva Green gives one of the best performances. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 6, 2020
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| 82% | Let Him Go (2020) |
It has all the elements of a good thriller drama... But it felt so over the top. Every bit of it felt predictable. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Nov 6, 2020
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| 33% | The Devil Has a Name (2020) |
Workmanlike directing from Olmos, and well-acted overall... A compelling enough piece of work. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 100% | La Haine (1996) |
A really charged, pulsating film shot in gorgeous black and white, and it still really holds up. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 100% | White Riot (2019) |
I would have preferred that it were were a little more focused and a lot tighter, but [it has] interesting information and is worth seeing. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 100% | Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something (2020) |
A lovely documentary and quite moving. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 39% | Rebecca (2020) |
Why go back and remake a classic unless you can improve upon it in some way or add something new? To my mind, I don't think this did. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 40% | Honest Thief (2020) |
It is with great relish that [Liam Neeson] takes on this role, and he does it extremely well. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 90% | The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) |
It's classic Sorkin in that it illuminates and elucidates a [subject] matter that would have otherwise been opaque and confusing, but it's a little too Rashômon-like in that you never get the full master view of the riots... Good Sorkin, not great Sorkin. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Oct 16, 2020
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| 71% | Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles (2020) |
Quite sumptuous visually and has some of the most amazing, decadent food you can even imagine. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 29, 2020
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| 68% | The Artist's Wife (2020) |
A really beautiful portrait of a relationship. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 29, 2020
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| 85% | Misbehaviour (2020) |
I want to give a shoutout to Keira Knightley -- I don't think I've ever seen her so good. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 29, 2020
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| 90% | Enola Holmes (2020) |
Millie Bobby Brown is so perfectly cast here. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 29, 2020
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| 89% | Kajillionaire (2020) |
You cannot apply ordinary logic to a Miranda July movie or else you will be immensely frustrated, but it is funny and weird. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 29, 2020
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| 92% | Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2020) |
If you can make it all the way to the end of the film, there's a sweet homage... But I did find it a bit tedious. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 4, 2020
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| 83% | You Cannot Kill David Arquette (2020) |
I thought it was more bizarre than effective. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 4, 2020
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| 89% | Robin's Wish (2020) |
Robin's wish was to help people feel less afraid. This film accomplishes that. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 4, 2020
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| 90% | Rising Phoenix (2020) |
This is just an extraordinary documentary. It covers the history of the Paralympic Games, and it does so from a historical perspective and a very intimate profile of several athletes... These stories are so inspiring. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 4, 2020
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| 82% | Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) |
The plot is nothing, the narrative arc is all over the place, and the comedy is tired and sad. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 4, 2020
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| 61% | Children of the Sea (Kaijû no Kodomo) (2020) |
Some of the water imagery was absolutely beautifully captured. Narratively, I couldn't follow it. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Sep 4, 2020
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| 94% | Yes, God, Yes (2020) |
It feels a bit thin and underwritten. It feels like it maybe should have been a longer short [film] that it was, but maybe not quite a full feature. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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| 62% | Radioactive (2020) |
Started out as very generic, but then became very interesting and surprising. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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| 73% | Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (2020) |
The problem that I have with the documentary is that it became repetitive. It didn't really do much after 35 minutes and just rehashed the same territory. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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| 83% | Stockton on My Mind (2020) |
A really interesting doc and a look at someone who is going to continue to be a formidable politician. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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| 68% | Most Wanted (2020) |
This is one of the least-gripping crime thrillers that I could imagine. There's just too many story arcs going on at the same time and you don't feel terribly invested in the characters. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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| 100% | We Are the Radical Monarchs (2019) |
A wonderful and very inspiring film. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jul 24, 2020
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| 70% | Think Like a Dog (2020) |
I just didn't think it was funny. If you're going to do a talking dog movie... you really need to go all in. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 5, 2020
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| 88% | You Don't Nomi (2020) |
It does a remarkable thing: it takes Showgirls, which was a joke that became one of the biggest flops of all time... and it reconsiders it. It says that it may be a misunderstood masterpiece. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 5, 2020
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| 72% | Becky (2020) |
[Lulu Wilson] is fabulous... It's quite a ride. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 5, 2020
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| 100% | Dykes, Camera, Action! (2018) |
It was a very interesting documentary. My only objection to it was that it was only about 60 minutes long... It could have used more depth. - FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles)
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| Posted Jun 5, 2020
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