Lost Art

Lost River (2015) Review

Cinematography by Benoit Debie

Ryan Gosling's Directorial debut is full of technicalities and broken poetry, Lost River was indeed the weirdest film i have seen in this year 2015. The movie gives me a very mixed emotions and leaves me a very mixed impression. The film felt like it was dedicated to a persons like me who often prefers the technically and the artistic design of the film over the narrative itself. There's no doubt that Lost River is inconsistent but at same time beautiful. It's a good movie yet a bad film at the same also that leaves a very unsatisfying and unsettling impression to others specially for those normal audiences.

After seeing this film i know there's a lot of things to talk about it, it was very personal for me though. Very personal because i love the film making of this movie and at the same i feel like it has very bad and inconsistent narrative. The film clearly used a lot of inspirations from other directors that Ryan Gosling was previously work with. It clearly has some Nicolas Winding thing that is going on to it, a but of touch of Denis Villenueve and some David Lynch inspired surrealist images.

Lost River had a pure figurative stances in the way of showing it on a literal images, which is very rare instances to film making i believe where it makes the genre so confusing. I don't really know whether if film was a fantasy, a neo-noir or anything else but its very mystical. The plot seems to be wasn't interconnected to the characters to reach the same goal, what i mean is that the plot was being build through characters with different agenda but still in relations with each other.

The movie is about a spell, a curse i'd say and through that spell the film sperates three types of characters, Those who want to stop the spell those who is a victim of it and those who is living from it. Lost River was set in a decaying town, where houses was burnt and destroyed. A single mother named Billy (Christina Hendricks) who find herself working into a place where violence was praised to make a living raising her two sons and to keep the house that she has been emotionally attached with from destruction, meanwhile her son Bones (Ian De Caestecker) also discover a strange park that was been drowned in a water become Reservoir which seemingly delivers spell to the town, from there he met a woman named Rat (Soirse Ronan). There is also Bully (Matt Smith) a mad man who brings chaos to the town and Ben (Dave Mendelsohn) a Bank Manager who has a sexual desire to Billy.  

Like i said before Lost River is a weird film with weird characters on it, but it seems to be the strength of the film itself. The Uncompromising performances of the actors was i think delivered very well, Specially Matt Smith and Dave Mendelsohn characters they brought a pure madness to their strangely build characters, although i had to admit that the movie lacks a character arc a person can be easily enthralled and root for them thank to their performances. But i only mention them because i think they are the one who delivered the strongest but for me the film technicalities really all matters to me.

I Admire Ryan Gosling visual overview, the film is a very well shot film, from the lighting, to the cinematography, the colors, the camera movements are there to compel you, its undeniable that movie was more interesting when it comes to its visuals rather than its narrative, but i cannot also say that Ryan didn't give his own narrative an attention for the sake of visuals, i don't also really know if there is some message that Ryan want to deliver through this film. That's why the movie is also weak.

Colors was sure to be noticed in the film, Every time the backdrop color changes it also changes the emotions that surrounds the characters to build something on a scene, It's interesting because the film highly used color lighting to project the narrative, along with Music the same as colors it also set moods in every single scenes of the movie. The Color and the Music itself is a character in this movie sadly they are building up much way more better than the real humans of the movie.

See i admire the movie by Art not by being a Film alone because the film completely lacks a lot of element in story telling, Lost River have a bunch of very nonsensical scenes and imagery, which sometimes give us annoyance and sometimes hateful see, leaving a question what Ryan Gosling really want to show us on this movie. 

I Can't end the review without mentioning this, the violence in this movie are the most vicious, it was sometimes used in a nonsensical scenery that doesn't feel its adding a build up to the film's narrative and it just there for nothing, i think the most cruel is the use of Animal Cruelty imagery, it was strong violence and i hate to see it on a big screen and that's all i don't want to make too much amendment on it but as person who advocates animal rights it very personal to me whenever i see animal violence in the movies specially when its use for nothing or for just showing, figurative or not but as also a film enthusiast i have to understand the temper it might be a small scene for anybody but it seems strong to me.

Overall the film is very inconsistent, it has some good moments but it also have a bad build ups. Its a bad film but also good one, but for me i love the artistic and technical approach on it.

I give Lost River solid 6/10

I could say its not recommend at all or not for everyone, it is some sort of movies that takes time to be appreciated by the most. I will still go back to this film because i feel like there is more things to talk about it.