SummaryWhen 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert mysteriously disappears one night, her mother Mari (Amy Ryan) embarks on a dark journey that finds her face to face with hard truths about her daughter, herself, and police bias. Determined to find her daughter at all costs, Mari Gilbert retraces Shannan’s last known steps, driving her own investigation to an insu... Read More
Directed By:Liz Garbus
Written By:Michael Werwie, Robert Kolker
Lost Girls
Metascore
Generally Favorable
67
User score
Mixed or Average
5.6
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
67
81% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
19% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Mar 13, 2020
80
Garbus brings off something extraordinary in a film that sets out to leave us sad, enraged, and profoundly unsatisfied. Lost Girls makes us want to rethink our need for a certain kind of closure in a world that has so little of it.
Mar 18, 2020
75
The goal isn’t to find a killer, so much as it is to emphasize the ways women’s stories are often dismissed, and how people who aren’t well-off aren’t offered the same institutional consideration and care as the rich. It’s a compelling point to make, but one almost lost in the movie’s murky execution.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.6
35% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
48% Mixed
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
16% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Mar 20, 2020
9
The Movie was very sad and conveyed an emotional story with many twists and turns. It is a truly good movie to watch on Netflix
Jun 6, 2025
8
Liz Garbus's Lost Girls proves that the director can make not only good documentaries, but also feature films. The film is a worthwhile contemporary document about a still-unsolved murder case. With Amy Ryan in the lead role, it also boasts an excellent cast. The film is very well directed and depicts a mother's desperate fight against the ignorance and incompetence of a police department that is failing on all fronts. This reality is portrayed so shockingly that the film captivates the viewer, and there's never a dull moment.
Mar 12, 2020
75
It helps immensely that the film has an actress like Amy Ryan (Birdman, Beautiful Boy) to play Mari Gilbert, whose years-long battle to get anyone at all — the press, the police, the people of New York — to care about her daughter Shannan forms the emotional core of the story.
Jan 29, 2020
75
While this isn't another Garbus documentary, she’s made a film with all the power of great non-fiction storytelling, and found a way to make the emotional message of this story hit home in a way that it wouldn’t have otherwise.
Feb 2, 2020
67
For all the impressive craft, sense of harrowing anxiety and searing performances on display, Lost Girls doesn’t seem to know how to wrap things up and it hurts the picture overall.
Mar 12, 2020
50
Though the film eventually gets to where it needs to go, it feels scattered, stumbling over true crime tropes on the way.
Feb 2, 2020
40
Grim and gritty though seldom emotionally affecting, Lost Girls loses momentum just like the half-assed investigation of cops whose possible corruption is coyly suggested but unexplored, leaving another hole in an already incomplete story.
Oct 25, 2020
6
It has an interesting premise and is mostly well acted but unfortunately its not anything you'll remember. 64/100
Mar 17, 2020
5
Among all the things that failed to these girls that this film mentions, it should include itself. A trivial execution for such a relevant topic. Honestly a documentary would have been better.
Mar 14, 2020
2
(Mauro Lanari)
Liz Garbus invents the impossible in order not to attribute any responsibility to these mothers who are only good at organizing the funeral vigils of their daughters.
Production Company:
- Archer Gray
- Langley Park Pictures
Release Date:Mar 13, 2020
Duration:1 h 35 m
Rating:R
Awards
ReFrame
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
