• Latest
  • Trending
All the Lost Ones Review

All the Lost Ones Review: Drowning in Its Own Plot Holes

Sniper The Last Stand Review

Sniper: The Last Stand Review: Anchored by a Confident Hero

Last Bullet Review

Last Bullet Review: Going Out with a Bang

PaperKlay Review

PaperKlay Review: Fun, Flawed, and Full of Heart

Swing Bout Review

Swing Bout Review: A Brutal Fight Outside the Ring

Murder Has Two Faces Season 1 Review

Murder Has Two Faces Season 1 Review: Who Gets Remembered?

squid game season 3

Netflix Crowns ‘Squid Game’ Finale No. 1 as Creator Weighs Spinoff

2 hours ago
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

Trailer Ignites Global Push for Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Trilogy

2 hours ago
Michelle Pfeiffer

Michelle Pfeiffer-Inspired Amelia Takes Aim at M3GAN in Sequel Launch

2 hours ago
Candice King

Prime Video’s We Were Liars Opens to Mixed Reviews, Strong Summer Interest

2 hours ago
Meet the Parents

Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro Set Thanksgiving 2026 Return in Meet the Parents 4

3 hours ago
Dalia and the Red Book Review

Dalia and the Red Book Review: Writing Your Own Escape from Grief

Britain and the Blitz Review

Britain and the Blitz Review: A Beautiful, Incomplete Truth

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Gazettely Review Guidelines
Saturday, June 28, 2025
GAZETTELY
  • Home
  • Movie and TV News
    squid game season 3

    Netflix Crowns ‘Squid Game’ Finale No. 1 as Creator Weighs Spinoff

    Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

    Trailer Ignites Global Push for Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Trilogy

    Michelle Pfeiffer

    Michelle Pfeiffer-Inspired Amelia Takes Aim at M3GAN in Sequel Launch

    Candice King

    Prime Video’s We Were Liars Opens to Mixed Reviews, Strong Summer Interest

    Meet the Parents

    Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro Set Thanksgiving 2026 Return in Meet the Parents 4

    Akira Warner Bros

    Warner Bros. Lets Akira Rights Expire After Two-Decade Struggle

    Adam Sandler and Jerry Bruckheimer

    Sandler, Bruckheimer Turn NHL Draft Into Hollywood Showcase

    Matthew Goode

    Matthew Goode’s ‘Too Dark’ Bond Pitch Sheds Light on 007 Reboot Debate

    because shes worth it

    Five-Lion Triumph for L’Oréal’s Ilon Specht Documentary

  • Movie and TV Reviews
    Sniper The Last Stand Review

    Sniper: The Last Stand Review: Anchored by a Confident Hero

    Last Bullet Review

    Last Bullet Review: Going Out with a Bang

    Swing Bout Review

    Swing Bout Review: A Brutal Fight Outside the Ring

    Murder Has Two Faces Season 1 Review

    Murder Has Two Faces Season 1 Review: Who Gets Remembered?

    Dalia and the Red Book Review

    Dalia and the Red Book Review: Writing Your Own Escape from Grief

    Britain and the Blitz Review

    Britain and the Blitz Review: A Beautiful, Incomplete Truth

    Peg O' My Heart Review

    Peg O’ My Heart Review: Strong Acting Can’t Save a Clumsy Script

    Hats Off to Love Review (1)

    Hats Off to Love Review: Checking the Boxes with Style

    I'm Beginning to See the Light Review (1)

    I’m Beginning to See the Light Review: A Russian Soul in an American Fable

  • Game Reviews
    PaperKlay Review

    PaperKlay Review: Fun, Flawed, and Full of Heart

    Projected Dreams Review

    Projected Dreams Review: Illuminating a Beautiful Story

    Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review

    Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review: A Nostalgic But Flawed Homecoming

    9 Kings Review

    9 Kings Review: Seven Monarchs, Endless Strategic Possibilities

    Rematch Review

    Rematch Review: Sloclap’s Ambitious Football Experiment Falls Short of Goals

    Chronicles of the Wolf Review

    Chronicles of the Wolf Review: Forging a Path Through the Past

    JDM Japanese Drift Master Review

    JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review – When Mechanics Meet Manga

    Blood Bar Tycoon Review

    Blood Bar Tycoon Review: A Bloody Good Idea, Poorly Executed

    Ghost Frequency Review

    Ghost Frequency Review: All Atmosphere, No Conclusion

  • The Bests
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movie and TV News
    squid game season 3

    Netflix Crowns ‘Squid Game’ Finale No. 1 as Creator Weighs Spinoff

    Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

    Trailer Ignites Global Push for Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Trilogy

    Michelle Pfeiffer

    Michelle Pfeiffer-Inspired Amelia Takes Aim at M3GAN in Sequel Launch

    Candice King

    Prime Video’s We Were Liars Opens to Mixed Reviews, Strong Summer Interest

    Meet the Parents

    Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro Set Thanksgiving 2026 Return in Meet the Parents 4

    Akira Warner Bros

    Warner Bros. Lets Akira Rights Expire After Two-Decade Struggle

    Adam Sandler and Jerry Bruckheimer

    Sandler, Bruckheimer Turn NHL Draft Into Hollywood Showcase

    Matthew Goode

    Matthew Goode’s ‘Too Dark’ Bond Pitch Sheds Light on 007 Reboot Debate

    because shes worth it

    Five-Lion Triumph for L’Oréal’s Ilon Specht Documentary

  • Movie and TV Reviews
    Sniper The Last Stand Review

    Sniper: The Last Stand Review: Anchored by a Confident Hero

    Last Bullet Review

    Last Bullet Review: Going Out with a Bang

    Swing Bout Review

    Swing Bout Review: A Brutal Fight Outside the Ring

    Murder Has Two Faces Season 1 Review

    Murder Has Two Faces Season 1 Review: Who Gets Remembered?

    Dalia and the Red Book Review

    Dalia and the Red Book Review: Writing Your Own Escape from Grief

    Britain and the Blitz Review

    Britain and the Blitz Review: A Beautiful, Incomplete Truth

    Peg O' My Heart Review

    Peg O’ My Heart Review: Strong Acting Can’t Save a Clumsy Script

    Hats Off to Love Review (1)

    Hats Off to Love Review: Checking the Boxes with Style

    I'm Beginning to See the Light Review (1)

    I’m Beginning to See the Light Review: A Russian Soul in an American Fable

  • Game Reviews
    PaperKlay Review

    PaperKlay Review: Fun, Flawed, and Full of Heart

    Projected Dreams Review

    Projected Dreams Review: Illuminating a Beautiful Story

    Tom Clancy's The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review

    Tom Clancy’s The Division 2: Battle for Brooklyn Review: A Nostalgic But Flawed Homecoming

    9 Kings Review

    9 Kings Review: Seven Monarchs, Endless Strategic Possibilities

    Rematch Review

    Rematch Review: Sloclap’s Ambitious Football Experiment Falls Short of Goals

    Chronicles of the Wolf Review

    Chronicles of the Wolf Review: Forging a Path Through the Past

    JDM Japanese Drift Master Review

    JDM: Japanese Drift Master Review – When Mechanics Meet Manga

    Blood Bar Tycoon Review

    Blood Bar Tycoon Review: A Bloody Good Idea, Poorly Executed

    Ghost Frequency Review

    Ghost Frequency Review: All Atmosphere, No Conclusion

  • The Bests
No Result
View All Result
GAZETTELY
No Result
View All Result
All the Lost Ones Review

Culkin Tells Fans to “Lower Expectations” for His Caesar Flickerman

The President's Wife Review: Catherine Deneuve Reigns Supreme

Home Entertainment Movies

All the Lost Ones Review: Drowning in Its Own Plot Holes

Arash Nahandian by Arash Nahandian
3 weeks ago
in Entertainment, Movies, Reviews
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on PinterestShare on WhatsAppShare on Telegram

The genre of near-future apocalypse has become a crowded field, a cinematic landscape littered with the husks of failed societies and cautionary tales. Mackenzie Donaldson’s “All the Lost Ones” wades into this territory, presenting a North America not shattered by alien invasion or nuclear fire, but fractured from within.

The catalyst is frighteningly plausible: a crisis over contaminated tap water spawns a political schism. On one side are the environmentalist resistors, proponents of a life-saving “Clean Water Bill.” On the other, the United Conservancy, a right-wing militia that has, through means left entirely to the imagination, seized control of the Northeastern seaboard.

The film wisely narrows its focus from this continental conflict to an intimate stage. We are not with the generals or politicians. We are in a remote Ontario lake house with a small group of resistors in hiding. They are a blended family of fugitives, attempting to survive both the enemy without and the tensions within. Here, the war is not one of armies but of whispers, of dwindling supplies, and of the terrifying uncertainty of who might appear at the edge of the woods.

A World of Premise Decay

A film’s internal logic is its constitution; violate it, and the whole structure collapses. “All the Lost Ones” begins with a specific, potent idea—a war over water—and then promptly forgets about it. This is a story suffering from an acute case of what might be termed premise decay.

The very characters fighting because of a contaminated water supply repeatedly swim and wash in a local lake with a shocking lack of concern. It is not just an oversight; it is a fundamental betrayal of the narrative’s own stakes.

The larger world-building is just as porous. A militia has occupied a significant portion of two countries, a feat of logistics and force that apparently occurred while the entire US military was on vacation. This shaky foundation supports a story of jarring tonal lurches. The group is introduced celebrating six months of survival with a boisterous party, only to be suddenly reduced to hunting rats for food.

A dead body, gruesomely mutilated, appears in the lake for a moment of shock, then vanishes from the plot and the characters’ minds forever. The audience cannot invest in a world whose rules are so casually discarded. The film sets a stage for high-stakes drama and then asks us to ignore that the stage itself is on fire.

The Cardboard People

A crisis reveals character, or so the saying goes. In “All the Lost Ones,” it reveals a collection of archetypes seemingly assembled from a kit. Our protagonist is Nia, a pregnant resistor who feels conflicted about hiding.

All the Lost Ones Review

Her partner, Ethan, wants to settle down. Her sister, Penny, is a doctor. These are not people; they are functions. The script withholds the most basic details that would grant them life—what did they do before the world fell apart? What skills do they possess beyond looking worried?

Their interactions are stilted, their dialogue a minefield of unnatural pronouncements. When Nia finds herself in a firefight, she quips a political slogan (“My body, my choice”) in a moment so bizarrely out of place it shatters any existing tension. The film’s central romance lacks any discernible heat, and a subplot involving Penny and a much younger man is more uncomfortable than insightful.

The actors do what they can with the material. Jasmine Mathews, as Nia, brings a raw emotional energy that the script does not earn. Yet even her commitment cannot salvage scenes built on such flimsy foundations. The antagonists fare no better. Led by Devon Sawa’s snarling Conrad, they are one-dimensional monsters, their villainy as deep as a puddle.

A Polished Surface on a Hollow Core

For all its narrative failings, the film is not without its technical merits. There are moments when the craft on display almost tricks you into believing in the story. Trevor Yuile’s musical score is a standout, a genuinely effective tool for building suspense and dread where the script cannot.

All the Lost Ones Review

The cinematography, too, has flashes of quality, capturing the menacing beauty of the Canadian wilderness. Small details in the production design, such as a radio broadcasting the weather in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, offer clever hints of the militia’s cultural encroachment.

The action itself is a mixed bag. Some sequences achieve a brutal, frantic energy, a tense cat-and-mouse game with bloody consequences. Others devolve into nonsensical shootouts where characters with supposedly limited ammunition fire wildly into the trees.

“All the Lost Ones” is constructed around a potent, painfully relevant idea about how easily societies can crumble along ideological fault lines. These few bright spots of technical skill cannot mend the deep fractures in the story’s foundation. The film is ultimately a handsome vehicle with a sputtering engine, crippled by its own illogical plot and populated by characters too thin to cast a shadow.

All the Lost Ones premiered at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival on September 19, 2024, followed by a limited theatrical release on November 29, 2024, and wider theatrical distribution on April 18, 2025 and is available for digital rental and streaming on platforms like Fandango at Home and Prime Video as of April 2025.

Full Credits

Director: Mackenzie Donaldson

Writers: Anthony Grant, Cheryl Meyer

Producers: Yipeng Ben Lu, David J. Phillips, Yas Taalat, Mackenzie Donaldson, Chantal Kemp

Cast: Jasmine Mathews, Devon Sawa, Vinessa Antoine, Douglas Smith, Lochlyn Munro, Steven Ogg, Matthew Finlan, Anthony Grant, Sheila McCarthy, Devon Sawa

Director of Photography (Cinematographer): Ashley Iris Gill

Editor: Sydney Cowper

Composer: Trevor Yuile

The Review

All the Lost Ones

4 Score

"All the Lost Ones" is a classic case of concept over execution. It presents a terrifyingly plausible scenario for societal collapse, only to abandon its own rules with frustrating inconsistency. Despite some effective filmmaking, particularly its tense musical score and moments of slick cinematography, the narrative is too riddled with contradictions to be believable. The characters are too hollow to be affecting. It stands as a significant missed opportunity, a film with a potent, relevant idea that lacks the storytelling discipline to see it through.

PROS

  • A relevant and gripping premise for a modern civil war.
  • An effective and suspenseful musical score.
  • Moments of strong cinematography and clever production design.

CONS

  • The plot is undermined by major logical inconsistencies.
  • Characters are one-dimensional and lack meaningful backstories.
  • Dialogue is often unnatural and clunky.
  • The central conflict of the story is frequently ignored.

Review Breakdown

  • Overall 0
Tags: ActionAll the Lost OnesDevon SawaDouglas SmithDramaElectric Panda EntertainmentFeaturedJasmine MathewsLevelfilmLochlyn MunroMackenzie DonaldsonSteven OggThrillerVinessa Antoine
Previous Post

Culkin Tells Fans to “Lower Expectations” for His Caesar Flickerman

Next Post

The President’s Wife Review: Catherine Deneuve Reigns Supreme

Try AI Movie Recommender

Gazettely AI Movie Recommender

This Week's Top Reads

  • Smoke Review

    Smoke Review: The Year’s Most Unpredictable and Unsettling Show

    7 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Alma and the Wolf Review: Ethan Embry Shines in a Flawed Fever Dream

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Boglands Review: Shadows and Whispers in the Irish Mist

    2 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Mix Tape Review: A Story Told on Two Sides of a Cassette

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Marshmallow Review: These Woods Hide Unexpected Secrets

    4 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Love Island USA Season 7 Review: Summer’s Hottest Guilty Pleasure Returns

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Waterfront Review: Kevin Williamson’s Return to Murky Family Waters

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Must Read Articles

Heads of State Review
Movies

Heads of State Review: Elba and Cena Carry the Ticket

7 hours ago
Squid Game Season 3 Review
Entertainment

Squid Game Season 3 Review: No Happy Endings Here

1 day ago
Love Island USA Season 7 Review
Entertainment

Love Island USA Season 7 Review: Summer’s Hottest Guilty Pleasure Returns

2 days ago
The Bear Season 4 Review
Entertainment

The Bear Season 4 Review: A Contemplative, Cathartic Final Course

2 days ago
Surviving Ohio State Review
Movies

Surviving Ohio State Review: The Weight of Witness

2 days ago
Loading poll ...
Coming Soon
Who is the best director in the horror thriller genre?

Gazettely is your go-to destination for all things gaming, movies, and TV. With fresh reviews, trending articles, and editor picks, we help you stay informed and entertained.

© 2021-2024 All Rights Reserved for Gazettely

What’s Inside

  • Movie & TV Reviews
  • Game Reviews
  • Featured Articles
  • Latest News
  • Editorial Picks

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About US
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise with Us
  • Review Guidelines

Follow Us

Facebook X-twitter Youtube Instagram
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Movies
  • Entertainment News
  • Movie and TV Reviews
  • TV Shows
  • Game News
  • Game Reviews
  • Contact Us

© 2024 All Rights Reserved for Gazettely

Go to mobile version