Saturday, August 20, 2016

Found movie

Lost River, the first film directed by Canadian heartthrob actor Ryan Gosling, quickly developed a bad rep. Critics savaged it as soon as it screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and in the US it only opened for a short time in LA and New York, although it seems to have had a bigger opening in Britain. Generally it's considered a rehash of David Lynch's greatest hits, as well as a few of Gosling's other favorites.

Is Lost River a good movie? To be honest I'd have to watch it again to make a decision. But I can aver that it's not a pointless one.

It's indebted to Lynch, but goes a little further in some ways. In Blue Velvet, Lynch presented Frank Booth as the unacknowledged id of straight, suburban society. He wasn't too subtle about being a violent criminal, but he operated in the shadows and it seemed most people agreed not to see him.

Lost River, centering on a single mother and her teenage son struggling to keep their family home, takes place in a heartland that's already in ruins, where the monsters have entirely taken over. In fact there are effectively two Frank Booths here. Bully, played by former Doctor Who with a mooky Yank accent and a ridiculous sequined jacket, claims profits on all copper piping stripped from razed houses, basically a violent form of rent seeking. Dave, played by Australian Ben Mendelsohn in a performance that's two parts John Malkovich to one part Alec Baldwin, is a little slier. A bank manager who announces his intent to foreclose on mother Billy's (Christina Hendricks) subprime loan, he gives her an out by offering her a job at his night club. It turns out to be a weird, creepy place, and he's got nasty designs on her.

Possibly excessive but definitely worth investigating.

2 comments:

semiconscious said...

our current familiarity with ryan gosling pretty much begins & ends with 'driver', a movie that elicited a big 'that was it?' from both of us (well, we also saw 'the big short', but, hell, everyone was in that). the whole child star / heartthrob thing comes as a surprise (probably should've suspected, i guess). watched the trailer for 'lost river', which strongly emphasizes the discombobulated/hallucinatory aspects, & will place it on our 'worth checking out' list (tho it may be a while, what with both of us still somewhat reeling from 'portrait of jennie' :) )...

meanwhile, we most recently watched, & greatly enjoyed, something a bit more 'traditional': 'the revenant', directed by alejandro innaritu, who also directed 'birdman' & 'babel', both of which we liked, & who, in this instance, seems to be channeling the spirit of akira kurosawa (maybe mixed with that of jack london?). the environment is unrelievedly stark/harsh (but beautiful for it all the same), the occasional violence, erupting from the otherwise deep stillness, is punishingly visceral, & ultimately what were're left with is a very old school, simple story of good, & evil, & vengeance, & redemption, delivered via a couple of outstanding performances (dicaprio & hardy, with the latter, as usual, stealing the show). anyway, we both really loved it, & recommend it...

now, of course, if you insist on 'strange', we suggest 'the good son' (1993), starring (sitting down?) macauley culkin & elijah wood. & i feel that to say any more than this would just be to spoil the experience :) ...

Ben said...

Don't really blame you for your trepidation. Portrait of Jennie, though possessed of some solid performances and mysterious atmosphere, does go off the rails in its latter stages. As far as where this one ends up... Well, it's a strange place, but it started in a strange place. I'd say there's pluses and minuses to saying "okay, let's see if we can out-Lynch David Lynch." One thing I like about it, though, is that in a few scenes real life Detroit natives show up and Gosling just lets them do their thing. As far as acting goes, he did make an impression in Lars and the Real Girl and hosted SNL to good effect.

Thank you for the heads-up on The Revenant. You have me interested now. I think I've shied away from it up until this point because I saw it had a 2.5 hour running time. Which actually isn't that unusual for a Western, going back to the fifties at least. Epic-length superhero movies are a newer development, one which I don't entirely approve.

The Good Son has a bad reputation, but that can happen for all sorts of reasons. I see that it's directed by Joseph Ruben, who made The Stepfather (good) and The Forgotten (started well, went downhill).