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.

SnoopyStyle Billy (Christina Hendricks) is the single mother of Bones (Iain De Caestecker) and Franky struggling in Detroit. Bones is salvaging from the abandoned buildings while avoiding local thug Bully (Matt Smith). Their home is going under with the mortgage. The banker Dave (Ben Mendelsohn) offers her a mystery job. Rat (Saoirse Ronan) is their melancholy neighbor living with her grandma. A crew is tearing down the abandoned homes and Billy is targeted. Billy takes the job which turns out to be a blood-splattering performance theater led by Cat (Eva Mendes). Bones finds a road running under the river.This has a magical fantasy sensibility surrounding this all-too-real crumbling America. It doesn't quite work. This is an indie that needs no name actors. The magical fantasy would play a lot better that way but this feels fake rather than surreal. It wants to be wildly inventive but it has no wonder. It has the potential to be darker but it takes too long to get there. That darkness needs to start sooner. This is slowly paced. It needs more drive in the narrative in the first half. The second half just gets weirder and weirder until I almost laughed at the dancing. I don't need it to make sense. I do need it to make me feel something other than dismissiveness.

Cali I don't know what to say about this movie. I couldn't even tell you for sure what it's about. Sadly, Ryan Gosling seems to have gotten a bit too ambitious and started combining too many elements that the plot gets taken away. There are so many strange choices that Gosling makes as a director. I don't mind weird movies, if they make sense. This truly does not and I am sad to say that it did not hold my attention at all. A lot of potential here wasted.

donjven Everyone has acknowledged great cinematography, great acting, lighting, but what the heck was that movie about? I keep hearing about a macabre underworld; well how does that translate into this story line? We're certainly not going to compare "Dave" to "Frank" in Blue Velvet, are we? I watched the entire movie and with about twenty minutes left I realized it was going to end the way it began for me: having no idea what this movie was about. I was quite impressed with the lighting and the use of darkness and fire to add to the scene lighting. It just needed to move past that. Really one of the worst movies of all time I've ever seen because of the story.