Lost River

​ A few years ago when Lost River was being made, I was really into it.  I was tracking its progress, I was following when it was going to come out…and then it got critically panned.  Frying pan upside the head panned.  I couldn't find one person who enjoyed it.  Unfortunately I lost interest after that.  There were too many other things to watch and not enough time.


Here we are years later and I finally got around to watching this movie.  I was originally excited because it was written and directed by Ryan Gosling.  It stars Christina Hendricks, Matt Smith (Doctor Who), and Iain De Caestecker.  The trailer itself doesn't do the movie itself any justice.  In fact, you should probably avoid the trailer altogether because it tells you literally nothing. 


The premise is that a young single mother gets swept into a dark underworld in order to save the family home.  Meanwhile, her teenage son is roaming around their ghost town trying to find scrap to sell which attempting to avoid the local gang/bully.


The movie itself is shot in a stark sort of way.  Everything is raw and real.  This really lends itself to the movie, otherwise you'd be sitting there wondering what the hell is happening.  And maybe you still will be. 


I can't tell you that I enjoyed it.  I appreciated it.  I can see what Gosling was trying to achieve and I think that he did so.  The movie didn't resonate with me like I had hoped it would.  It's a movie that looks towards the art of making movies in general rather than selling you on plot or dialogue.  It's visual, occasionally visceral, and hard for me to recommend.  It's part fairy tale and part real life.


It may even have been part enjoyable.