Critic Reviews

Over the course of four hours, we get to know Lorena as a human being, from her naive Catholic upbringing to her wise middle age. Twenty-five years after her trial, we owe Lorena Gallo an apology. This documentary is a good first step.

First-rate film that succeeds in re-working the story we thought we knew into the story we should have known all along.

All in all, Lorena is a moving portrait of a woman who has reformed her life into a quest to protect abused women.

Lorena is compelling not because it’s a well-done look at a wild and notorious true-crime case. It’s compelling because, in a way, watching it involves an examination of our past as well as our present.

It gets better and more complex as it goes along.

“Lorena” doesn’t go out of its way indict any single party in the Bobbitt case, choosing instead to allow Lorena, as she is today, to guide us into understand who she really was. ... Part of the messaging here--subtle, but at times as blaring as a pharmaceutically-enhanced erection--is how dominant the phallus as an instrument of patriarchy remains in our culture.

The four-part documentary Lorena, however, goes beyond the headlines about the woman who cut off her husband's penis, yielding a thoughtful, comprehensive look at domestic abuse and how the media covers high-profile stories.

Some of those series – like Netflix’s 2019 retro-rubbernecking of the Ted Bundy killings – offer little fresh analysis. Others – like ESPN’s 2016 OJ Simpson: Made in America – provide a powerful and disturbing insight into the historic fault lines in our culture. Lorena definitely fits into the latter category.

Intriguing but somewhat scattershot docuseries.

It’s fascinating. Going in, it might be hard to imagine how four long hours were needed to explore the nuances and implications of the single act that made Lorena Bobbitt famous. But four hours later, it all make sense.