Critic Reviews

• Tom Long, Detroit News

  Director-co-writer Sheldon Candis stretches a lot of the time, a romantic story seems to have been cut drastically, and the film's climax is far too typical.

• Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post

  Even the boarded-up row houses look romantic.

• Stephanie Merry, Washington Post

  A sometimes taut and occasionally preposterous day in the life of an 11-year-old accompanying his uncle on business in Baltimore.

• Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

  What begins as a promising peek into the tragic cycle of waylaid promise that's crippling broken inner-city families is itself dispiritingly pulled sideways in the Baltimore-set indie "LUV."

• Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com

  Both for good and for ill, "LUV" has a film-school feeling about it, and channels a legacy of fatalistic American crime cinema that includes "Mean Streets" and "Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

• Joel Arnold, NPR

  Saved from its predictable plotline by a strong cast and a central relationship written and performed with sensitivity, LUV reveals the stakes of trusting in a role model and the costs when that person turns out to be human.

• Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com

  Common more than pulls off the tough task in a revelatory, award-worthy turn.

• Jordan Hoffman, ScreenCrush

  if interpreted as "a fable" you may be able to shrug it off.

• Jeff Meyers, Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

  Candis demonstrates a practiced hand in his direction, keeping the pace brisk and the tension taut. But there's no getting around the meandering and highly formulaic script.

• Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

  Clearly inspired by the television show "The Wire," newbie writer-director Sheldon Candis stumbles through crime drama clichés in a prosaic coming-of-age movie that fails to connect on any level.

• Robert Levin, amNewYork

  It's got the heart and soul, but not the brain.

• S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media

  Gritty drama follows young boy exposed to violence, drugs.

• Kelly Vance, East Bay Express

  An attempt to do something new in the field of boyz-n-the-hood relationship dramas.

• Mike Scott, Times-Picayune

  A hackneyed, from-the-streets Sundance drama that would be mostly forgettable if not for the performance of child actor Michael Rainey Jr.

• Annlee Ellingson, Paste Magazine

  Candis doesn't trust his himself to pull it off, weighing the film down with a disconnected score that pushes an otherwise edgy story into melodrama.

• Chase Whale, Twitch

  An almost likable movie about unshackling the past.

Read all 16 critic reviews