City of Lies
Saban Films | Release Date: March 19, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrMar 18, 2021
Impassioned, engaging and eloquently constructed, City of Lies has much more to offer than first meets the eye. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 18, 2021
Still, in large part due to the stellar work from Depp and Whitaker, this is a valuable and somewhat illuminating look back at the senseless, stunning killings of two rap icons just six months apart. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 18, 2021
This is a compelling drama with real-world concerns that shouldn't be ignored, and it deserves better than to be the victim of an actor's offscreen sins. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayMar 18, 2021
As the piles of Biggie-related material has proven, it’s perhaps impossible to cover everything this story is really about in under two hours. City of Lies makes an honest effort but doesn’t get the job done. Read full review
50
IGNZaki HasanMar 16, 2021
Even as its ambitions are laudable in casting a wide net over a variety of societal ills, the film can’t quite muster the will to follow through on those ambitions and instead succumbs too often to cliche when complexity was required. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 16, 2021
The performances are solid, and the early scenes — recreating the crimes, etc. — are fascinating at a documentary level. Setting up the context is useful, a PD under a cloud and determined to avoid race riots that might return if dirty cops were in on all this. But the rabbit hole closed in for me about an hour in. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMar 19, 2021
In practice, City of Lies is so understandably overwhelmed by the sprawling mystery at its core that it never figures out what to ask of either history or itself. Or how. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleMar 23, 2021
Ultimately, City of Lies is more James Elroy than docudrama, resulting in a tired police thriller that hitched its wagon to an untenable star. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 18, 2021
Familiar execution and drab characters conspire to drain this vital story of its intensity. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 18, 2021
The truth is out there, but when pot and kettle go to battle, Hollywood best be careful using the term City of Lies to describe anything other than itself. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 19, 2021
It’s a dull, overly familiar affair that really only reminds one that Depp should have segued nicely into old man roles if his personal life and on-set behavior hadn’t derailed his trajectory. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMar 18, 2021
The look is grimy and the atmosphere is grim; but what could have been a moody character study or a taut conspiracy thriller is instead a dreary procedural, a misbegotten mush of flashbacks, voice-overs and dead ends. Read full review
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