The transitory, multi-valenced dynamics among emotionally volatile characters has always been an integral part of Cassavetes's filmmaking. But the unstable mixtures of pathos and exuberance that often resulted are given much more artful treatment here. Love Streams plainly has two central characters, but it has no emotionally privileged ones, and its extraordinary balance in the midst of so much emotional disarray depends crucially on that. We can see, for example, the respective parental passions and failings of Robert and Sarah without ever feeling forced toward condemnation or defense.[…]
Love Streams is of exceptional interest in part because it conveys […] uninhibitedness without ever leaving the audience on the outside. Its consistently wayward form draws us into its characters' multifaceted balancing acts.
— Peter Hogue (Film Quarterly)
Two closely-bound, emotionally wounded siblings reunite after years apart.