Pictures of an allegedly happy childhood: A small boy plays with his lanky older brother in an overgrown garden: The two boys are watched by their young, single-mother Billie (Christina Hendricks). The film cuts to the dilapidated houses next door, a destroyed warehouse, and a theatre now in ruins. The opening images of Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut make clear where this supposed idyllic place is located: an impoverished American city shortly before its demise. A place people have given up on and nature is gradually taking over.
But Billie wants to stay. When her mortgaged house is marked for demolition, she takes on a job in a nightclub. She enters the club through the door that is shaped like a huge mouth and finds herself in a dark underworld where the female performers pretend to disfigure and mutilate themselves. Also Bones, the older brother, is trying to find extra money: He goes looking for the ruins of an underwater city. His friend Rat warns him the place is supposed to be cursed. Bones doesn’t believe her…
Ryan Gosling's LOST RIVER is clearly inspired by David Lynch; mainly BLUE VELVET and LOST HIGHWAY are hinted at again and again; Nicholas Winding Refn, too, has left his traces on the film. It’s obvious, however, that for Gosling’s directorial debut he may have bit off more than he can chew.

Christoph Selzer (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Carla MacDougall