Directed by Liz Garbus
Available to stream now on Netflix
If you were to run in to actress, Amy Ryan on the street, it's not likely you would recognize her. While the actress, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 for her credible turn as a a hardened welfare mother in "Gone Baby Gone", has consistently delivered nuanced yet impassioned performances throughout her lengthy career of playing varied working class women, Ryan appears to also physically transform with each role. With this remarkable ability, she is far less of a screen personality and more identifiable as a skilled character actor.
In "Lost Girls", the grim narrative film from award-winning documentarian, Liz Garbus, Ryan delivers another extraordinary performance playing a weary, hard-working, single mother who becomes the relentless catalyst in pushing the police to actively investigate the disappearance of her daughter, leading to the discovery of several unsolved murders of young women by a possible serial killer.
Overworked and underpaid, Mari Gilbert (Ryan) is part of the current American working-class having to work two jobs yet still barely getting by. With two teenage daughters, Sherre (Thomasin McKenzie) and Sarra (Oona Laurence) living with her in Long Island, she struggles with trying to be a good mother yet being away for long hours trying to provide for them. Mari has an older daughter, Shannan (Sarah Wisser), out on her own, also struggling to make a living but has made a different choice in line of work.
When she doesn't hear from Shannan, Mari begins asking her daughter's friends and acquaintances if they have seen her. As more time goes by, she becomes very concerned and contacts the police. But after realizing that a search for her daughter would hardly become a priority, especially after it's revealed that she's been involved as a sex worker, Mari takes matters in to her own hands, beginning her own investigation in finding Shannan. Without much to begin with beyond a 911 call from her daughter screaming for help after meeting a client, Mari tracks down many of the people who were with Shannan on that last night she was seen, aggressively questioning them.
Based on the best-selling, non-fiction account by Robert Kolker, "Lost Girls" examines the tragic injustice in how the police decides which individuals (with thousands ending up missing and most likely deceased in the U.S. alone) are considered worthy of taking extra investigative steps in the search for them. To be fair, some of this certainly is determined by necessity as there are only so many cops to do this overwhelming job. Yet still the poor, most people of color, the Trans community and working girls don't manage to rank high on their list.
Liz Garbus has had an extensive career making haunting sociopolitical documentaries which includes "The Farm: Angola, USA" about the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary; "The Execution of Wanda Jean" which looks at the first African-American woman to be executed in the US since 1954; "The Nazi Officer's Wife" reveals the shocking story of Edith Hahn, a Jewish woman who married a member of the Nazi Party and the examination of the tumultuous life and career of musician, Nina Simone in "What Happened, Miss Simone?". This is the director's first narrative film and while she displays many of her formidable skills as a storyteller, "Lost Girls" does not feel as urgent and compelling as it should. This story does bring attention and dignity to these forgotten young women yet the film's beats are overly familiar, never rising much beyond a solid but average episode of "Law & Order".
But Ryan's performance certainly helps with elevating this drama. With a gruff, intense and highly volatile presence, Mari hardly comes across as sympathetic. Yet she still earns our respect, softening and becoming maternal during the times when it's really needed. Not willing to sit around waiting for the police to do their job, Mari plasters the station's bulletin board with homemade missing person posters, demanding attention. This aggressive action finally gets her some consideration from Richard Dormer (Gabriel Byrne), a weary police Commissioner who actually takes a personal interest in her case.
The missing poster is the only clear picture we get of Shannan with the only other opportunities are blurry images of her during the night of her disappearance. What we learn of Shannan is revealed through angry, confrontational conversations between Mari and her daughters and the few people who had came in to contact with her. But with so little information and backstory of Shannan, this makes it difficult to make an emotional connection and feel a deep sense of loss for this young woman.
"Lost Girls" is an uneven yet important work, putting in to sharp focus how these vulnerable, young women, who were someone's loving daughter, sister, mother or friend, did not deserve the tragic fate that would ultimately define their short lives. The failure that we continue not to address the conditions that leads to so many poor and powerless women feeling like they have few options but to undertake risky and degrading occupations is the true tragedy of this story.
Based on the best-selling, non-fiction account by Robert Kolker, "Lost Girls" examines the tragic injustice in how the police decides which individuals (with thousands ending up missing and most likely deceased in the U.S. alone) are considered worthy of taking extra investigative steps in the search for them. To be fair, some of this certainly is determined by necessity as there are only so many cops to do this overwhelming job. Yet still the poor, most people of color, the Trans community and working girls don't manage to rank high on their list.
Liz Garbus has had an extensive career making haunting sociopolitical documentaries which includes "The Farm: Angola, USA" about the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary; "The Execution of Wanda Jean" which looks at the first African-American woman to be executed in the US since 1954; "The Nazi Officer's Wife" reveals the shocking story of Edith Hahn, a Jewish woman who married a member of the Nazi Party and the examination of the tumultuous life and career of musician, Nina Simone in "What Happened, Miss Simone?". This is the director's first narrative film and while she displays many of her formidable skills as a storyteller, "Lost Girls" does not feel as urgent and compelling as it should. This story does bring attention and dignity to these forgotten young women yet the film's beats are overly familiar, never rising much beyond a solid but average episode of "Law & Order".
But Ryan's performance certainly helps with elevating this drama. With a gruff, intense and highly volatile presence, Mari hardly comes across as sympathetic. Yet she still earns our respect, softening and becoming maternal during the times when it's really needed. Not willing to sit around waiting for the police to do their job, Mari plasters the station's bulletin board with homemade missing person posters, demanding attention. This aggressive action finally gets her some consideration from Richard Dormer (Gabriel Byrne), a weary police Commissioner who actually takes a personal interest in her case.
The missing poster is the only clear picture we get of Shannan with the only other opportunities are blurry images of her during the night of her disappearance. What we learn of Shannan is revealed through angry, confrontational conversations between Mari and her daughters and the few people who had came in to contact with her. But with so little information and backstory of Shannan, this makes it difficult to make an emotional connection and feel a deep sense of loss for this young woman.
"Lost Girls" is an uneven yet important work, putting in to sharp focus how these vulnerable, young women, who were someone's loving daughter, sister, mother or friend, did not deserve the tragic fate that would ultimately define their short lives. The failure that we continue not to address the conditions that leads to so many poor and powerless women feeling like they have few options but to undertake risky and degrading occupations is the true tragedy of this story.
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