LOST RIVER (2014)

Ryan Gosling has always been a little ... left of center, let's say, though I have a feeling many who see Lost River (his writing/directorial debut) will feel the man's trolley has completely slipped its tracks.  The film was heavily derided (even laughed at) at Cannes, and to say it isn't easy to categorize is an understatement.  Gosling, quite obviously influenced by Nicolas Winding Refn (his Drive/Only God Forgives director) filmed this bizarre, surreal "dark fairy tale" in what looks like a war-ravaged Detroit, the city here playing Lost River - a town nearly all residents have long ago abandoned, since it was created via the opening of a dam whose reservoirs flooded out a bunch of smaller valley cities to form this one, and its lake.  Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men") stars as Billy, a single mom of two boys who's three months late on her mortgage, and to keep her home has to take a job at the creepiest club ever, where acts of carnage are committed onstage for those who get off on watching (indeed, the most disturbing scene in the film is when Billy seemingly - and painstakingly - slices off her own face).  Meanwhile, her son Bones (Iain De Caestecker of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."), along with a girl named Rat (Saoirse Ronan) who lives in the next house over, works to release the curse they feel Lost River is under, after Bones finds the underwater cities beneath their man-made lake ... all while Bones continues trying to elude the insane Bully (Matt Smith), who is after Bones for stealing "his" copper from the town, and who has the tendency to use scissors to cut off the lips of those who cross him (swear to God).

This is the first (hopefully only) time you'll read a review on this blog that breaks my commandment-like constraint of length (normally I want anyone coming here to be able to zip through reviews in under a minute) - not just because this film is so hard to classify, but also because I wanted to make it clear how much I feel Lost River is worth seeing.  It's strange, violent, very surreal, even had me squirming in my seat a few times, and early on I had decided I didn't like it; all true.  But I stuck with it, and by the end had grown to appreciate Gosling's effort at trying to make an unconventional film that has power.  One that isn't mainstream or straightforward or even pleasant; often, while watching it, I found myself feeling bad - tainted - as grubby and violated as the town of Lost River looks here.  I cared about Bones and his mom and brother, about Rat and her grandmother, and Bully ... well, Bully just freaked me the hell out, period.  The bottom line is, the fact that a 95-minute film had this kind of hold, this kind of power - caused these kinds of sensations in me, repulsive as some of them were - says an incredible amount about the film itself.  About the power film can possess, in general.  And while no masterpiece, maybe not even a particularly great film, I can appreciate and even respect Gosling for what he set out to do.  Even more so because I found myself so caught up in all the weirdness, all the way. (rated R)  B-

LOST RIVER trailer