Laurel Canyon · reception & legacy

2003 · Lisa Cholodenko

How Laurel Canyon has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Landed in 2003 as a warmly reviewed but 'minor' indie — everyone praised Frances McDormand, fewer championed the film — and it's since aged into a low-key favourite, rediscovered by fans working backwards from The Kids Are All Right through Cholodenko's earlier work.

What's debated

The perennial fan debate: is it a hazy, vibes-over-plot hangout movie that's secretly great, or a slight film redeemed almost entirely by McDormand's loose-limbed record-producer performance?

Its footprint

It trades on — and feeds — the whole Laurel Canyon rock-scene mythology, and McDormand's Jane became a touchstone 'coolest mom in movies' character; the title now gets it regularly confused with the 2020 music documentary of the same name.

Where it stands

Beloved-but-half-forgotten early-2000s indie: a Cholodenko-completist and McDormand-stan staple rather than a canon fixture.

★ Did you know? Alessandro Nivola did his own singing as the band's frontman, performing songs written by Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse — including 'Shade and Honey', which Sparklehorse later recorded themselves.