THE LOST DAUGHTER MOVIE REVIEW

Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut with this brooding, European-esque adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel The Lost Daughter. The story follows an English professor named Leda (Olivia Colman) as she travels to Greece for vacation. While there, she meets a family who lose their daughter on the beach. Though Leda does find the daughter for them, she also covertly steals the daughter’s doll. Why? It may lie in her memories of her own time as a young mother (played by Jessie Buckley) raising two daughters. This is very much a character study and definitely meant for the more patient audience members. Did Maggie Gyllenhaal deliver with her feature debut? Justin, Frank, Melina, and Lexie dish out the dark and dirty details hidden within this fascinating (and weirdly divisive) film.

WATCH HERE

DIRECTED BY: Maggie Gyllenhaal

STARRING: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Dagmara Domińczyk, Paul Mescal, Robyn Elwell, Ellie James, Ellie Blake, Isabelle Della Porta, Jack Farthing, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Athena Martin, Panos Koronis, Alexandros Mylonas, Alba Rohrwacher, Nikos Poursanidis

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

Justin Zarian (Screener Squad, Eye on the Prize, Breakfast Pub, Assistant Site Manager)

Justin’s fate as a movie fanatic was written in the stars when his birth forced his parents to cancel their planned Oscar viewing party. While growing up in California, he was often seen in front of the television watching and re-watching Star Wars, Jurassic Park, classic Disney movies and a steady stream of animated shows. This eventually led to a B.A. in Film at Brigham Young University and an Outstanding Student Teacher Award for displaying a level of film knowledge so insane that even his fellow film students couldn’t compete. He received his M.A. from Syracuse University and is currently pursuing a teaching certificate, but still volunteers at One of Us every so often for the fun of it. His hobbies include non-stop film conversations, wondering how Mass Effect 3’s ending went so wrong, espousing the joys of shooting guns (but not hunting, as he’s quick to note), writing the next great American television show in his head, and anything else entertainment related. You can find him on Facebook once in a blue moon.

 

 

Melina Eames (Screener Squad)

Melina first discovered that she carried the nerd gene at the tender age of four following her exposure to a little film called A New Hope. In the twenty-some years that followed, Melina continued to grow into her geek identity through the discovery of Batman, Mst3k, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Mandalorian. But perhaps her most significant discovery came at the age of fourteen when a night of YouTube mining led her to the review site of Spill.com. Melina became a devoted follower whose fandom did not end with the site’s demise. By then, it had worked its dark magic and left her with a love and appreciation for film criticism that she has yet to shrug.

 

 

Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)

Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.