Martin Bradley
Whatever you might think of Ryan Gosling as an actor he still has a lot to learn as both a writer and director, though admittedly his first film "Lost River" displays an outstanding visual sensibility at times but it's just too weird and pretentious to merit serious consideration. It's got a great cast but what it lacks is a script, (it's really just a series of silly ideas strung together). Consequently none of its highly talented performers can do anything with the frankly appalling material. Indeed this is the kind of unmitigated disaster most first-time directors would never recover from but at least Gosling has his acting career to fall back on and in the right part he is a very fine actor. I suppose you could call it 'a personal project' and I have been assured that it has a 'message', something about the dire economic state of America today though Gosling seems, at least on the surface, to be more interested in fire and water. Needless to say, the critics mostly hated it and the public stayed away.
danielrachael
Most people will want to check this film out simply because Ryan Gosling is so popular and well liked. Not to mention an incredible actor but this film, although not bad by any stretch shows that he still needs to polish his filmmaking skills a bit more. Regardless just out of curiously give this one a shot. (Decent directorial debut by Gosling).
donkrishna-dk
The movie is good but hard to be digested.
Some scenes are confusing so that I have to rewind a bit to understand what the meaning of them.
Not to mention the gore club? So weird that such club exist plus the violet claustrophobic chambers that until the film end I still don't get why a people want a sex in such chamber.
Flamiingo
Watching this film left me with a different taste than most films I've been consuming throughout the years. It got me thinking, Why did I like it so much - even though the plot wasn't too clear, narrative was broken, fantasy and reality didn't blend together too well.. But still, it had this emotional great impact on me.Made me think of the beginning.. the early age of this great medium - the cinema. Back then, crowd will go to films for the attraction, for the stimulation of senses. No body gave a f*** about plot, it was all so new and fresh - ppl came to see images running one after another, to see fast motion, to see slow motion, to see the main character shooting a gun towards the camera. Story wasn't everything, but less than the main attraction - which was this wonder of cinema itself.Suddenly it got me - this film managed to give me sensory experience - from the brilliant work of audio-visual relations. It manage to form these strong imagery combined with stunning soundtrack, that leaves such a strong impact, excitement, understanding of the medium powers. I don't think that people who didn't like the film are lacking artistic taste, or leaning too much on reason and can't play along with indie experimental cinema. I don't think it's true cause I saw plenty of these so called "artistic" films, who put efforts on style but doesn't give a crap about their audiences. I know what ppl mean when they talking about lame films who hide behind artistic masks cause their films are empty and boring. But I have to say that's simply not the case in Gosling film.I don't think u will enjoy it more if ur a cinema student or whatever. I just think that if u'll manage to let the imagery take over u, without being too hard on plot or narrative, nor hating it immediately cause u'll identify it with those annoying "artistic" films - U will carry along with it, to a world of attractions, where image and sound meet to form strong impact on us as spectators. To stimulate our senses. This review has been written almost as a defensive line in court, but due to critics and score, got me thinking what a waste it is, this beautiful piece who goes almost unnoticed for its special, maybe even ahead of its time, imagery. I wish Gosling will keep developing his directive side as i see the huge potential this guy have. That being said (and hopefully understood), I found the plot interesting. Well acted by the characters, and decent directing by Ryan who manage (in my eyes) to form his own cinematic language (even though everyone was mentioning mainly the influences). Bottom line, obviously, its a fantastic film, if u let it take over and devoted urself to. Keep up the good stuff Ryan.
