Lost in La Mancha
IFC Films | Release Date: January 31, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
2
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
It’s a documentary that should be shown in all film schools. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Wildly sad, funny and terrific documentary. Read full review
100
NewsweekDavid Ansen
An excruciatingly entertaining portrait of the filmmaking process that no Hollywood studio would ever allow to be shown. But Gilliam, bless his impish, obsessive heart, is anything but a Hollywood type. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This is a sad and funny true-life tale that speaks volumes about the difficulties of independent filmmaking. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
An ideal film for movie buffs, who are bound to delight in each new misfortune even as they sympathize with the documentarians' sometimes inflated vision of a tortured genius at work. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A mesmerizing documentary. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Watching it is like being trapped in one of those nightmares where you need to get somewhere, fast, and you're distracted and delayed at every turn. Only in this case, the nightmare is happening to someone else, and it's costing an awful lot of money. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Records an accident while it's happening, revealing a situation that makes you laugh again and again while weeping, metaphorically at least, for the sheer frustration of it all. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This documentary could have been a simple downer. Instead, it's a giddy, manic-depressive roller coaster - because it brings us eye to eye with Gilliam. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Nothing more than a modest, streamlined ''making of...'' diary about a movie that never got made -- it's ''Project Greenlight'' with bigger stars and bigger disasters. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
At once bitterly funny and devastating, Lost In La Mancha sides with Gilliam in form and spirit, piecing together the train wreck with snaky humor and interludes that cleverly mimic his Monty Python collage animations. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The documentary is fascinating, but hardly enjoyable. It's like watching ants eat an elephant. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Like rubbernecking motorists, we can't help but watch with lurid fascination. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Too bad for Gilliam and everyone involved, but in the departments of spectacle and schadenfreude, great fun for us. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Lost in La Mancha, a documentary about a movie that never got made, is more involving -- and heartbreaking -- than many movies that do get made.
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The equation of Gilliam with Quixote is so obvious to everyone involved that Fulton and Pepe can hardly be blamed for adopting it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
After watching the fascinating and compelling new documentary Lost in La Mancha, you may forever wonder how it is that movies are made at all. Read full review
80
VarietyDerek Elley
There's no shortage of disaster stories in the history of film production, but none have been recorded with such frankness, immediacy and aching sense of disappointment. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
It will fascinate and possibly even delight cinephiles. Who does not enjoy gawking at accidents, particularly those in which there are no fatalities and the sad story unfolds in almost slow-motion clarity? Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Lost in La Mancha basically catches "Don Quixote" in free fall…It's our loss nonetheless. Gilliam is one of the great film fantasists of our age, and one expects he would have done Cervantes proud. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Captures one of the wildest, most heartbreaking episodes in Gilliam's career. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
You can interpret Lost in La Mancha as a sort of triumph of the creative spirit. Gilliam's darkest gallows humor always comes with a smile. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
In the end, it's not much fun to watch a brave artist getting his dream kicked out of him. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Fulton and Pepe have created an extraordinary document. Hilarious and heartbreaking. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A fascinating record of how the movie fell apart, piece by piece, with everything short of a natural disaster conspiring against the filmmaker. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Lost in La Mancha, which started life as one of those documentaries you get free on a DVD, ended as the record of swift and devastating disaster. Read full review
75
New York PostMegan Lehmann
When Gilliam is finally forced to admit defeat, it is nothing short of heartbreaking - for audiences, too, as the few shots that made it into the can hold such promise. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It is an honest, dumbstruck, not particularly deep demonstration of how insanely difficult it is to make a movie, any movie, no matter how blithe the end result may appear on screen. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
Squirmily funny documentary. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Throughout, the documentary is fun and engaging, even whimsical when using (to good effect) illustrations and Gilliam’s own storyboards. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Privy to virtually all phases of the debacle, the filmmakers have created the behind-the-camera equivalent of a slo-mo crash test. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Gilliam himself is a joy to behold. His wit stays sharp even as his fortunes dull, and the conditions that conspire against him only prove the mettle in our man of La Mancha. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film should be required viewing for all aspiring filmmakers, but the story's road-accident appeal is universal. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
You can't help feeling that what this enterprise required was Louis B. Mayer, or, though one has no wish to be cruel, Harry Cohn. [3 February 2003, p.98]
30
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
The movie neither inspires us to pine for what might've been nor makes Gilliam-style filmmaking seem like a noble pursuit. Read full review
20
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
So this is not, as vaunted, a documentary about a film destroyed by temperaments and tizzies. It is the account of a medical catastrophe that could have spoiled the opening of a supermarket. Read full review
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