Lost Girls

"Lost Girls works just fine as a not-overegged drama and also true-crime tale. Even if the mystery isn’t powered by jaw-dropping moments, there’s always Amy Ryan’s Mari. Swearing, yelling, chain-smoking and fixated on what she thinks her family needs most, not seeing how her actions isolate and impact them, the character convinces and compels at the centre of this sad tale."

"Given the slim running time, Michael Werwie's (Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile) script is somewhat slight, but still satisfyingly taut and allows the likes of Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Changeling) , McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit) and Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects), as the world-weary commissioner in Mari's firing line, moments to shine. An understated drama well worth seeking out."

"At 95 minutes, Lost Girls is sorely lacking and, ironically, one wonders what a Garbus docuseries could have found instead."

"It's serious, respectful, gravely melancholic. Yet anger best describes the movie's atmosphere, its overall mood and its authorial tone"

"Loses some momentum in the domestic scenes with Mari and her other daughters (Thomasin McKenzie and Oona Laurence), which are so brief, they feel cut down for time. But when Garbus takes the long view — her camera pulling back to emphasize the awful loneliness of the marshy stretches where these women died — “Lost Girls” hits hard."

"An emotional examination of one of the most famous unsolved cases of the modern era."

"Liz Garbus' adaptation of 'Lost Girls' never amounts to more than a story about one mother's anger despite all the issues surrounding the case."

"The intention to show how the justice system failed these forgotten women is honourable, but the dramatic execution is lacking."

"Kolker himself has compared his book to writing about the maiden voyage of the Titanic - everyone knows how it ends, the trick is making people care about how it gets there - and Garbus mostly succeeds in keeping up that unique tension."

"A haunted and doggedly original drama that shakes off easy categorisations."