Lion · reception & legacy
2016 · Garth Davis
How Lion has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A six-Oscar-nomination crowd-pleaser in the 2016–17 awards season that went home empty-handed, it has since settled into 'reliable tearjerker' status — less awards-canon than cry-canon, the film people recommend with a box of tissues.
What's debated
Film fans still relitigate two things: whether the Sunny Pawar first half towers over the adult-Saroo second half, and whether Dev Patel — plainly the lead — campaigning in Best Supporting Actor was classic category fraud.
Its footprint
It's affectionately known as 'the Google Earth movie' — probably the most emotionally devastating product placement in modern cinema — and it's the film where long-haired Dev Patel's glow-up became a full-blown internet phenomenon.
Where it stands
A beloved-but-not-canonised weepie: the Letterboxd reviews are less analysis than crying-emoji testimonials, and 'the first hour alone deserved the Oscar' is a recurring refrain.