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For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved onesLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more" data-rightCaption="Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">

For more
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">

For more
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">and they serve as one key to this strangeLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">majestic film. In adapting the 2009 nonfiction book about the search for a fabled city in the AmazonLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">layering of perspective and even some of the mystery that New Yorker writer David Grann brought to the material. Grann’s book is at least partly concerned with a contemporary investigation into the fate of the obsessed British explorer Percy FawcettLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">less so. But in opting to tell a more linear story about the life of FawcettLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">something very much his own: a look at how society trains us to know our place in itLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">something very much his own: a look at how society trains us to know our place in itLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">read our review of The Lost City of Z.; Credit: Courtesy Amazon Studios/Bleecker StreetLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">Harold and Lillian: A lively documentary devoted to the kinds of folks about whom documentaries are almost never madeLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">researcher and archivist Lillian Michelson. Though they lived modest lives and have rarely been celebrated outside the industry itselfLet It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">mentoring generations of artists and designers and helping some of the greatest filmmakers realize their visions.Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more" data-rightCaption="Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">

For more
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui
For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui">

For more
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992: How do you document in a film the crack-up of something as complex as a city a quarter-century past? In ABC's vigorous and illuminating Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992, writer-director John Ridley (the creator of ABC’s American Crime and Showtime’s Guerrilla) weaves familiar news clips and on-the-street videos with many thorough interviews with men and women whose lives were invariably broken in two by what Ridley’s film calls “the uprising.” No matter their specific circumstances, these residents and police officers found their lives before the city burnt fully sundered from the lives they lived afterward: Now they had lost loved ones, lost themselves to violence, performed acts of heroism or made choices in the heat of the moment that we still debate today.

For more, read our review of Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992.; Credit: Ted Soqui

Watching movies for a living is a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, and our film critics are up to the task. While they see plenty of stellar movies, they see some not-so-great ones, too. They've weeded through them all to give you their picks for the best films of April 2017. If a few haven’t opened in a theater near you just yet, don’t fret: There’s always a chance you’ll be able to stream them on your small screen, or they may go into wider release in the coming months.

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