[8] The film was released in theaters in fall 2013, and received critical acclaim for taking a complex and compassionate look at one of the most challenging issues of our time.
[9] It holds a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus, "After Tiller applies empathy, honesty, and graceful understatement to a discussion that all too often lacks them all.
Miss Americana is described as an "intimate", "empowering", "genuine" and "funny" documentary by critics, who complimented Wilson's direction, portraying Swift's creative process and discussions on issues such as eating disorder, self esteem and sexual assault.
[25] Wesley Morris of The New York Times described Miss Americana as "85 minutes of translucence" with Swift, stating that she is "self-critical, grown up and ready, perhaps, to deliver a message beyond the music".
[24] David Ehrlich of IndieWire called the film "thrilling" and "enormously winsome", writing that "its power is in watching someone who stands astride the world gradually realize that their art is the only thing they can control".
[25] Hannah Woodhead of Little White Lies wrote that the film offers "unprecedented access to the notoriously private singer and her dizzying world" through "interviews, studio footage, home videos and concert recordings".
[30] Upon release, the film received positive reviews from critics, earning a “Certified Fresh” designation on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which said, “An exposé of ugly cultural forces, Pretty Baby is disturbing and triumphant in equal measure.”[31] It was named a New York Times “Critics’ Pick,” with Natalia Winkelman writing that it “suggests a generation of women transformed by the prototypes society boxed them into.”[32] Writing in Variety, Owen Gleiberman called the film, “Supremely well-crafted...a documentary of fascinating depth that holds our voyeuristic image culture up to the light.”[33] He additionally notes that “Lana Wilson's accomplished film traces how Brooke Shields's career was at the forefront of our culture's sexualization of girls, and shows what it was like for her to live a life inside that image.”[33] Marlow Stern in Rolling Stone called Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields “extraordinary,”[34] and Katey Rich in Vanity Fair called it “intimate and unflinching.”[35] Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program.
[39] Wilson's film Look into My Eyes is a 2024 feature documentary centered on a group of New York City psychics who conduct deeply intimate readings for their clients.
Writing in Sight and Sound, Nicolas Rapold noted that “The genius of Lana Wilson's portrait of New York City psychics is that she doesn't ask us to believe, but to feel” and goes on to call the film “an exquisitely made documentary that puts compassion before cynicism.”[40] The New York Times critic Alissa Wilkinson called Look Into My Eyes “mystical” and “marvelously nuanced and fascinating,”[41] and IndieWire chief film critic David Ehrlich described it as “a sensitive and surprising film about the relationship between shared performance and private pain.”[42] Look Into My Eyes was called one of the best movies at Sundance 2024 by the New York Times,[41] the Washington Post,[43] Rolling Stone,[44] and Harper's Bazaar.
[5][49] IndieWire describes Wilson as "a singularly perceptive filmmaker whose documentary work has always focused on the various ways that pain can web people together - if only because it can't be exorcised alone.
[51] Writing in The Moveable Fest, Stephen Saito says that “the director has a knack for inviting audiences into private worlds very different from one another...whether the abortion clinic in After Tiller, the practice of a Zen Buddhist who talks people away from suicide in The Departure, or an audience with Taylor Swift in Miss Americana, the settings may be different, but the animating idea behind them has largely been the same as [Wilson has] accompanied subjects through confronting their biggest fears and usually, with the help of another, finding their way through.”[52] Wilson has cited many influences for her work, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Frederick Wiseman, Lixin Fan, Heddy Honigmann, and William Wyler.