78
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertLost in America is being called a yuppie comedy, but it's really about the much more universal subjects of greed, hedonism and panic. What makes it so funny is how much we can identify with it.
- 100ConsequenceScout TafoyaConsequenceScout TafoyaThe empty promise of the American dream is the implicit subject of most of his films, but in Lost in America, they’re the most exquisitely drawn. Failure and pettiness haunt David and Linda, and Brooks finds compelling ways to frame them.
- 88Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelAlbert Brooks is one of the few, maybe the only, comic filmmakers making movies today with laughs that hurt. A very funny--and therefore neurotic--young man, Brooks places himself in all sorts of contemporary situations in his movies, situations that force him to whine like a baby to get what he wants. He's the filmmaker for the Baby Boom generation.
- 83The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinLost In America is equally potent as a satire of the road movie and of the American dream of endless mobility and escape.
- 70The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinA yuppie mid-life crisis is in the offing, and Albert Brooks has made it the basis for Lost in America, an inspired comedy in his own drily distinctive style.
- 70Film ThreatFilm ThreatNo one portrays and skewers really intelligent morons the way Albert Brooks does. Oddly enough Lost in America has a lot of similarities to everybody’s favorite TV show Green Acres. They are both about men who have dropped out of society and their inability to convince all the insane people in their world about the usefulness of common sense and rationality in an insane world.
- 70NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenThe peril of making a movie about monochromatic people is that you'll make a monochromatic movie, and Brooks hasn't entirely avoided this problem. Basically, his imagination doesn't include other people: the audience is trapped inside one insanity and starts to crave variety. Still, few comics cut so close to the bone of daily life, and that's to be cherished. [25 Feb 1985, p.85]
- 60EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasBoth leads are likeable and have the cutting neuroses that Brooks delivers so well. They can’t really carry the film until the dramatic plot twist but from then on its all good fun.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineJust when it seemed Albert Brooks had gotten his creative energies under control, along comes this intermittently funny, often overdone comedy that could have been a classic.