City of Gold
IFC Films | Release Date: March 11, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 10, 2016
City of Gold transcends its modest methods, largely because it connects Mr. Gold’s appealing personality with a passionate argument about the civic culture of Los Angeles and the place of food within it. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineOleg IvanovMar 7, 2016
The film affectively defends food critic Jonathan Gold's assertion that it's ultimately cooking that makes us human. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMar 15, 2016
As Gabbert alternates [Gold's] monologues with long, gliding shots of funky supermarkets and old cinemas, she makes the point these aren’t disconnected aberrations in L.A. This is the city. Read full review
83
The Film StageJacob OllerMar 10, 2016
City of Gold is simultaneously a vibrant, colorful love letter to the unsung parts of Los Angeles, a populist philosophy of food and culture, and a thesis on what criticism should be. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 24, 2016
As a documentary about Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, City of Gold is more or less an entertaining valentine to an interesting guy. As cultural archaeology, unearthing the relationship between food and a city, food and a critic, a city and a critic and a swirling stew of all the above, it's fantastic. Read full review
80
Time OutChristina IzzoMar 10, 2016
What it lacks in cohesion, City of Gold makes up for in its subject’s wit and wisdom. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonFeb 1, 2015
Gold is merely the conduit for the film's real focus: Like his own reviews, City of Gold is a love letter to L.A. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesApr 13, 2016
It’s a fun watch, and familiarity with Los Angeles isn’t required to get a kick out of these toe-dips into Koreatown and Tehrangeles and all the other micro-communities that make the city a macro-paradise for eaters. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelMar 26, 2016
It's a documentary that is ostensibly a profile of a man, but is really about the vibrant city he inhabits, beyond the Hollywood sheen and the grit of Compton. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesBethany Jean ClementMar 24, 2016
While the film’s formula gets repetitive, little revelations peppered throughout keep it engaging. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeDevra FirstMar 24, 2016
It is a film about Los Angeles, culture and coexistence, the American dream. It is the opposite of narrowcasting. Read full review
75
Washington PostMaura JudkisMar 24, 2016
The film is most interesting when it uses Gold to tell the story of Los Angeles’s diversity, rather than the story of the most important stomach in Los Angeles. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubMar 24, 2016
More than just culinary recommendations, he provides a cultural guide to the Los Angeles that is almost never seen in movies — and then the film makes an argument that Gold’s L.A. is more relevant than the one we all know. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 11, 2016
In essence, City of Gold is a celebration of a critic who helped define a city by what it eats. And at a bargain price. So take notes, and dig in. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 10, 2016
It's a tasty primer on the man, the eater, the critic and the city. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 10, 2016
Plain-spoken and unpretentious, he’s a fount of surprising information and informed opinion. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis HarveyJan 20, 2016
At a moment when public discourse seems so often focused on exacerbating hostile divisions, this docu’s joyful embrace of human (as well as edible) variety as “the spice of life” seems particularly, well, filling. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 1, 2015
[An] accessible and informative close-up documentary. Read full review
67
IndieWireIbad ShahFeb 9, 2015
The film is an agreeable document of cultural processing that should especially appeal to the niche crowd at its center — it's more or less mandatory viewing for L.A. foodies. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Calum MarshApr 4, 2016
Gold is important because Gold is a great writer. No further argument necessary. Read full review
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