Lost River (2015)

Sadly Over-hyped

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Whatever you might think of Ryan Gosling as an actor he still has a lot to learn as both a writer and director, though admittedly his first film "Lost River" displays an outstanding visual sensibility at times but it's just too weird and pretentious to merit serious consideration. It's got a great cast but what it lacks is a script, (it's really just a series of silly ideas strung together). Consequently none of its highly talented performers can do anything with the frankly appalling material. Indeed this is the kind of unmitigated disaster most first-time directors would never recover from but at least Gosling has his acting career to fall back on and in the right part he is a very fine actor. I suppose you could call it 'a personal project' and I have been assured that it has a 'message', something about the dire economic state of America today though Gosling seems, at least on the surface, to be more interested in fire and water. Needless to say, the critics mostly hated it and the public stayed away.

A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town. Lost River has all the right intentions and a talented cast of people like Eva Mendes, Christina Hendricks, Iain De Caestecker, Ben Mendelsohn, Saoirse Ronan and Matt Smith but first time director Ryan Gosling lacks the experience of what a great film needs and to be honest the movie does have some nice shots and Caestecker's perfomance aint that bad but the rest of the cast and the plot itself was kind of a letdown and Smith's role was super painful to sit threw. Overall the movie has some nice things but it's not as great as it could have been.

Billy (Christina Hendricks) is the single mother of Bones (Iain De Caestecker) and Franky struggling in Detroit. Bones is salvaging from the abandoned buildings while avoiding local thug Bully (Matt Smith). Their home is going under with the mortgage. The banker Dave (Ben Mendelsohn) offers her a mystery job. Rat (Saoirse Ronan) is their melancholy neighbor living with her grandma. A crew is tearing down the abandoned homes and Billy is targeted. Billy takes the job which turns out to be a blood-splattering performance theater led by Cat (Eva Mendes). Bones finds a road running under the river.This has a magical fantasy sensibility surrounding this all-too-real crumbling America. It doesn't quite work. This is an indie that needs no name actors. The magical fantasy would play a lot better that way but this feels fake rather than surreal. It wants to be wildly inventive but it has no wonder. It has the potential to be darker but it takes too long to get there. That darkness needs to start sooner. This is slowly paced. It needs more drive in the narrative in the first half. The second half just gets weirder and weirder until I almost laughed at the dancing. I don't need it to make sense. I do need it to make me feel something other than dismissiveness.

The Three Acts:The initial tableaux: The film has two locations. One is Lost River, a more or less country version of Detroit: jobs are in short supply, law enforcement is non- existent, salvaging copper is a dangerous way to make money, and the gangster Bully kills anyone who opposes him. Billy has two children. One is Bones, who salvaged copper at the wrong time, and is on Bully's extermination list; the other is Frankie, who is a bit past toddler. Bones and Rat become friends. Bones tries to find the origins of Lost River's problems.In order to keep her house, Billy takes a job at a house of horrors (with plenty of simulated gore and mayhem) and starts to adapt to it with Cat's help. The bank arranged (well, extorted) that; her loan officer runs the house of horrors.Delineation of conflicts: Bully wants to keep his little empire of fear and hate. Bones wants to figure out what all was drowned when the river of 'Lost River' was dammed (not damned...or was it?). Billy would like to keep her house, but also escape from the bank's coercion. She listens to the monologues of the cab driver who takes her to the fun house. Bones is supposed to watch over Frankie while Billy is at work; his failures to do that cause substantial trouble.Resolution: Law of the jungle crossed with politics of scarcity yields a dreary downward spiral. Is there any upside possible?