Lingua Franca
ARRAY Releasing | Release Date (Streaming): August 26, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The Film StageJose SolísAug 27, 2020
The film’s greatest achievement is the effortlessness with which Sandoval captures several microcosms simultaneously happening in New York City. Read full review
83
IndieWireJude DryAug 26, 2020
Lingua Franca illustrates the woefully untapped potential of marginalized storytellers. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 26, 2020
Lingua Franca — which made a splash at the Venice Film Festival last year, the first film by a trans woman to be featured at the festival — is a gorgeous and delicate picture, an understated work that opens a window on an intimate world. Read full review
79
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpAug 27, 2020
Lingua Franca has a lived-in sensibility facilitated by Sandoval’s empathy and understanding of what Olivia’s going through. It’s the film’s best quality: a firsthand knowledge driving an earnest request to be seen and respected, as an American and as a woman. Olivia isn’t asking for much. There’s no reason to deny her. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 26, 2020
Lingua Franca isn’t a screed. Far from it. Sandoval pulls us in gently with long, single takes which are often static, immersing us in the quiet rhythms of the lived-in environment she’s created within the Russian-Jewish neighborhood of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 26, 2020
The expression here is one of shared humanity regardless of background, gender identity, race or creed. The common language being used here is cinema. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 19, 2020
Sandoval has made a film with cultural currency and the rich texture of a New York setting for a story as immediate as today’s headlines, and just as sad. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 27, 2020
Lingua Franca is, first and foremost, a story about yearning, vulnerability and sexual awakening in which the complications of identity are revealed slowly, with a dramatist’s awareness that our perceptions will change, or undergo a succession of changes, before we come back to seeing the decreasingly calm Olivia for who she is, a passionate spirit on an uncertain journey. Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveyAug 25, 2020
Lingua Franca is notable not just for the deftness of its overall assembly and performances, but for its approaching hot-button issues of the moment (the status/rights of both transpersons and undocumented workers) in ways that are insightful without being heavy-handed. Read full review
60
Screen DailyWendy IdeAug 25, 2020
The shared experience between the filmmaker and the subject of the film allows for a character study of depth and intimacy. However, the story itself – a slightly soapy ‘romance against the odds’ narrative – presents few surprises. Read full review
58
The PlaylistJonathan ChristianSep 10, 2020
In the case of a film conceived by a clearly talented artist, one would hope that Sandoval’s work would mirror her potential, but “Lingua Franca,” a film preoccupied with formulaic ideas and distracted by speaking points, falls short of its goals. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 27, 2020
The mood is meditative, the camera patient; yet the film is too dramatically shy and narratively slight to stir. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonAug 25, 2020
While Sandoval's hard-working dedication is admirable, and her semi-autobiographical story full of latent dramatic potential, Lingua Franca is ultimately an underpowered, amateurish disappointment. Read full review
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