Late 2014/early 2015 is going to be a weird time for everyone. In the run up to the 2015 Oscars, we're all going to have to get used to hearing the words "Academy Award hopefuls Steve Carrell and Channing Tatum" which will never ever ever make sense. We're also going to have to stop thinking of Ryan Gosling as everyone's favourite monosyllabic "hey girl" spouting driver and instead start thinking of him as a "serious" director. And not just any director at that but.... the new David lynch?
Gosling's move from acting to directing is not really a surprise considering that his peers such as George Clooney have already successfully made the move, but the direction that he's taken stylistically may shock some. For those familiar with him purely for making out in the rain with Rachel McAdams or having a relationship with a sex doll, to see Gosling tackling a dark Detroit-based melodrama may be a shock. But to those familiar with his band Dead Man's Bones (quelle surprise, all of their songs are about death) and his work with Nicolas Winding Refn, it makes perfect sense.
Lost River, previously titled How to Catch a Monster, (upon watching the film, the former title may be a little dull but ultimately makes A LOT more sense) shows the struggles of single mother Billy and her son Bones as they try to get along in the titular town, which is allegedly cursed as it is built near a reservoir which contains the remains of an old town and dinosaur theme park. (obviously.) Billy, in an effort to keep a hold of her family home, accepts a job in a suspicious club run by the malevolent Dave (Ben Mendolson, doing his very best Leland Palmer impression) Bones meanwhile, tries to avoid the town's bully - named Bully because Gosling is VERY subtle when it comes to his narrative - who wants to punish him for muscling in on his turf. Throw in a rat, a LOT of singing and dancing, some light facial disfiguring and a Miss Haversham figure and you have the very loosest of ideas about Gosling's rambling plot. While it's admirable to have a lot of ideas for your first feature, he places things in the narrative that never come to much fruitition, and has a tendency to switch between Billy and Bones's narratives just as the former hots up - Bones is very much a one dimensional character, existing purely as an amalgamation of every silent moody outsider that Gosling has ever played.
But where the narrative is lacking, the film more than makes up for stylistically. The claims that Gosling is the new Lynch have already begun, and while his ideas may not quite live up to Lynch's unabashed madness, he certainly makes a grand go of it. In the blue and red hued scenes, the canted camerawork and the lovingly lingering close-ups of the luminous Christina Hendricks he homages the directors he has worked with multiple times - Winding Refn and Cianfrance, both of whom he states influenced the film - and even those that he hasn't such as Wong Kar Wai and Gasper Noe.
Lost River has thus far been the big divider at Cannes - in previous screenings it was received with boos, whereas in the one I attended, it was met with rapturous applause. It may not be the best film at Cannes, nor, should he continue in this path, is it the best film that Gosling can make. I haven't even began to mention the other fatal flaws in the film - its score is, to put it lightly, absolutely dire, and Matt Smith's American accent leave a lot to be desired. But for a first attempt it's certainly admirable, and manages, just like its director, to make up for any flaws it may have by looking beautiful.
Grace Barber-Plentie
3/5
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