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Wendy and Lucy

Wendy and Lucy

Drama · 2008

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

Movie details

Wendy and Lucy

“On the long road, friendship is everything.”

2008 Drama 1h 20m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.1 / 10

20.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

85 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

80 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Wendy and Lucy?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Bastard Out of Carolina

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Cardboard Boxer

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Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

Old Joy

Old Joy

Drama · 2006

Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.

Mammal

Mammal

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After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

Stuart: A Life Backwards

Stuart: A Life Backwards

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Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.

Being Flynn

Being Flynn

Drama · 2012

Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.

Die My Love

Die My Love

Drama · 2025

After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.

Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kelly Reichardt

Written by

Jonathan Raymond · Kelly Reichardt

Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams

Wendy Carroll

Wally Dalton

Wally Dalton

Security Guard

Larry Fessenden

Larry Fessenden

Man in Park

Will Oldham

Will Oldham

Icky

John Robinson

John Robinson

Andy

Will Patton

Will Patton

Mechanic

Lucy the Dog

Lucy the Dog

Lucy

Court is in session

Put Wendy and Lucy on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.