AVClub: Thanks (or no thanks) to movies and television, Los Angeles has a reputation as a town full of vapid, Hollywood-bound New Agers, who distrust art, value money, and consume all their meals in smoothie form. But since the mid-1980s, critic Jonathan Gold has been exploring a very different L.A., found among the mini-mall ethnic restaurants and vendor-trucks in less ritzy neighborhoods. Inspired by humorist Calvin Trillin—who always said that he’d rather eat where locals go after they get home from a long trip than the place where they take their visiting parents—Gold’s spent the past few decades writing about the cheap local delis and diners that define an alternate Los Angeles. He won a Pulitzer Prize for capturing the part of his city that shows up sometimes in detective novels, but rarely on any big or small screen.
While it doesn't transcend the boundaries of "family film," Dora and the Lost City of Gold stays true to itself and comes out slightly on top.