‎The Lost City of Z (2016) directed by James Gray • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

The Lost City of Z

2016 Directed by James Gray

In 1925, Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon in search of a myth. What he discovered became legendary.

At the dawn of the 20th century, British explorer Percy Fawcett journeys into the Amazon, where he discovers evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization that may have once inhabited the region. Despite being ridiculed by the scientific establishment, which views indigenous populations as savages, the determined Fawcett, supported by his devoted wife, son, and aide-de-camp, returns to his beloved jungle in an attempt to prove his case.

Charlie Hunnam Robert Pattinson Sienna Miller Tom Holland Angus Macfadyen Ian McDiarmid Franco Nero Bobby Smalldridge Tom Mulheron Edward Ashley Harry Melling Daniel Huttlestone Johann Myers Michael Ford-FitzGerald Aleksandar Jovanović Michael Jenn Nicholas Agnew Frank Clem Clive Francis Matthew Sunderland Yelena Solovey Murray Melvin Bethan Coomber David Calder Stacy Shane Richard Croxford Niall Cusack Colin Carnegie Pat Mooney Show All…

140 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 4

If not for the ineffably modern hollowness of Charlie Hunnam’s speaking voice, or the distinct rind of 21st century celebrity that still clings to co-star Robert Pattinson like the dying traces of yesterday’s cologne, someone could easily be fooled into thinking that “The Lost City of Z” was shot 40 years ago. In fact, that might be the greatest compliment a viewer could pay writer-director James Gray (“The Immigrant”), a man who seems increasingly determined to revive the glory days of our national cinema, when movie were pictures and auteurs were mavericks. Gray pulls from the past as liberally as Quentin Tarantino, but without the ego — he doesn’t try to process his influences through the slaughterhouse of his own…
Review by matt lynch ★★★½ 1

HOW GREEN WAS MY INFERNO
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 5

98

Percy Fawcett, the subject under a dual-microscope in James Gray's latest memory flip-book, forces the viewer to reconsider Adventure - as a genre and as a daydream - through immense meditation to his particular obsessions and mystifying personal narrative. Being both a product of colonialism and a primitive prognosticator of empathetic relations to other cultures, he's a White Explorer desperately trying to rebel against the stigma even as he continues to roam the jungle in search of a fabled city spoken in whispers and translations comprised of miscommunication. Whether he reached his destination is unknown, but Fawcett's idealism feeds Gray's melancholic grasp on clinical study and, without revealing the trick, his own personal interpretation of the story. The Lost…
Review by Brendan Michaels ★★★★½ 5

9/10
Percy's ambitions of finding Z reflect that of Gray's ambitions with his biggest project to date. Reminiscent of the films of David Lean, The Lost City of Z is a marvel of a film that packs a surprising emotional punch. Gray's themes of family continue and deepen more with this astonishing film. I couldn't stop looking at it. Images that feel reminiscent of Paths of Glory and Apocalypse Now are great but Gray adds his own spin to keep it fresh. So many amazing images that it's too much t unpack on a first viewing. That final shot is an all timer. This confirms that James Gray is the next great American Director. Let's all bow down to a true master.
Review by Jonathan Rosenbaum ★★★½

It's rare to find a movie these days that believes in adventure and sincerity and pure storytelling as interchangeable qualities, and lives up to all of them.
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 6

98

Gray's triumph over the tricky delicacy and tenderness of a well-timed match cut is nothing less than majestic. One in particular, matching a household fixture with a remnant of the front in WWI, reorients the space as one environment, both wasting moments as Fawcett yearns for the winding greenery and mysteries of the Jungle once again, shackled to necessities of family and honor. Just a remarkable, remarkable work.

Recent reviews

Review by Simon Lang ★★★★

Visually stunning old school Adventure Movie with surprisingly good performances from Hunnam and Pattinson. John Flickster would say it's a little bit magical and a little bit mystical.
Review by Tom Gueli ★★★

I REALLY wanted this to be one of my surprise top movie of the year entrants, after it flew mostly under the radar and then came out to much acclaim, but while I found the first forty five minutes or so really compelling, the film kind of flounders thereafter, unsure whether it wants to be about the arrogance of Western civilization, actual adventure, a man's personal obsession and grappling with an existential crisis in the wake of realizing he may never do anything impactful with his life, or his relationship with his family. It toys with all of these things, and never commits to any of them, until the very end when it goes a little more into the family…
Review by fistofan0077 ★★★★

I'm pretty convinced that this would have been even better with someone other than Hunnam in the lead, but what we're left with is still breathtaking. The supporting cast is great (especially Holland and Pattinson) and this movie definitely has the SHOTS.

It's not quite The Immigrant, but it's still engrossing, beautiful, and kind of haunting.
Review by Spencer R. ★★★

Less Apocalypse Now and more Barry Lyndon than I expected; though the lack of descent into the abyss was a disappointment, the political intrigue was a welcome surprise, as was the out-of-nowhere combat scene. Unfortunately, most movies based on a true story struggle with overall structure (what with real life and the three-act story rarely ever lining up), and The Lost City of Z is no exception. Every great scene remains just that: a scene; like a particularly great episode of an otherwise underwhelming-but-serviceable serial. In this episode, piranhas attack! This one, cannibals! Now we're in World War I! Again, these sequence are absolutely riveting, but they too often struggle to cohere -- why is the son who's mad at…
Review by Jonathan Boehle ★★★½

This was my third James Gray joint, after The Immigrant (I was indifferent to the majority of it) and Two Lovers (maybe my favorite first-viewing movie this whole year), and unfortunately this landed far closer to the former than the latter. I guess I got what it was going for, which is to create a longing for the jungle that Percy feels...but the film doesn't quite give as much set-up to the jungle to make that longing felt, and the England drama is rather hit-and-miss here. This seems like a film that might have benefited from a no-fucks-given three hour runtime, where the English drama is the same length, but there's like 30-40 extra minutes of jungle fun. The film…
Review by evanbrace ★★★★½

Superb. Stunning.
Review by Lewis Bell ★★★★½

The Lost City of Z in no way looks, or behaves like conventional blockbuster, and yet it is still able to elicit the same emotional beats from the audience, being raucously funny, soaring uplifting and tensely exciting. I think the weakest part of the film is Charlie Hunnam, not to say he gives a bad performance he gives is very good, but it is amongst a cast of flawless ones. He is however a solid and charismatic, which is what the film requires from that role, but if he was also interesting, now that would make the film perfect.
Review by Courtland Hopkins ★★★½

The tragedy is that this movie was almost a masterpiece. It's beautifully shot with a lot of beautiful performances and it's Majestic in its scope but sadly was just not ambitious enough with the storytelling. In this movie we are shown the story of Percy Fawcett the adventurer and explorer who disappeared with his son in the Amazon jungle. Now I've read conflicting reports of this man, one version has him as a visionary or the other as an obsessive occultist. The movie refuses to take a side but I feel that it's attempt to be impartial leaves it without a punch. Was the man a dreamer or a Madman? I'm afraid watching the movie you'll never know and that's…
Review by Abulafia ★★

Theme-wise it should have grabbed my attention, but it just didn't.