Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilization in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.
The Lost City of Z is a handsomely mounted prestige picture that excels most clearly in its cinematography — Darius Khondji's lush, immersive jungle photography gives the Amazon an almost mythic weight. The plot faithfully traces Fawcett's obsessive expeditions and his domestic tensions, but the episodic structure can feel meandering and undercooked in its emotional payoffs. The acting is solid across the board — Charlie Hunnam is earnest if occasionally flat, while Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller offer stronger support — but no single performance transcends the material. Novelty is moderate: the film occupies familiar explorer-biography territory and its themes of obsession and imperialism echo Herzog and others, though Gray's restrained, elegiac approach lends it some distinction. The ending, fading into ambiguity rather than resolution, fits the historical mystery but may frustrate audiences expecting conventional closure.