Lost River is what happened when Ryan Gosling decided he wanted to be a director. The results speak for themselves, in as much as Lost River is bad - really, really bad. Almost as if it couldn't settle on being just really, really bad, though, it's also annoying bad (go figure). That's to say, this attempt at a crime movie is physically frustrating to watch; it's genuinely painful to sit through in that clawing, claustrophobic, please, God, when will this be over? kind of way. And the plot, which concerns a secret underwater town, makes no sense. The most annoying aspect of Lost River stems from the fact that Ryan Gosling made the mistake of thinking it was this easy to make a film. It isn't. You can see his thought process in every unnatural moment of the movie, vying for the feel of a David Lynch flick. But only David Lynch can pull off David Lynch, and this ultimately winds up feeling undercooked - like one of those faux-arty student films that the philosophy-quoting kid makes in college.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
