Lost River

Ryan Gosling's directorial debut is nothing less than a masterpiece and I could'nt bother less about people disliking and hating this. Most of the negative comments I see of this movie complain about the lack of story. What they don’t understand is that this movie delivers a whole other story with just images, and that makes this movie so, so special. Let me break it down. The entire movie seems to be in another reality as we don’t get a single shot of the outside world and are in this little ghost town called Lost River with our characters that don’t even have real names. At least not in the usual way. For example, they are called Rat, Bones, Bully, Cat or Billy. No last names. That’s another clue that this movie leaves way more room for interpretation than we might think. Lost River Lost River represents our society how it is right now. It is falling apart and slowly destroys itself. It wants to exploit itself as much as possible, just to make more money, not caring about the environment and the people. The night club The night club represents the insanity, brutality and the depths of our world. It shows how far we can go and how unpredictable this world and society is. Why is there murder or unnecessary deaths here? The human kills other people and even though we personally might not be aware of that where we live, that is a fact we need to accept. This world can be evil, but it can also be the opposite. **The underwater world ** The underwater world shows how desperate some of us are and how we look for a way out of this. We’re helpless and it’s an escape of reality. We all have different ways to escape reality, whether it’s watching a movie, going for hikes or meeting with our best friends. But we need to ask ourselves, why do we even do that? That’s another question that can be answered in many different ways. The burning house At the very end, we see that burning house, we even get glimpses of that throughout the movie. It showcases the ultimate loss of control and how we only can watch our world and society go to the end. The grandma living inside the house just watched her marriage tape the entire movie, showing she already gave up and ultimately stayed in the fire, not even trying to escape. Lost River is not only giving out these messages, it also portrays them in the most perfect and gorgeous way. Ryan Gosling is a better director than actor and yep, I mean that. I admire pretty much every single shot in this movie. The coloring and lighting are astonishing and the cinematography itself is astounding. The acting was amazing and the characters, though they mostly served for even more interpretation, had something very unique. The entire movie felt dreamy and lost, but in a good way. This is the type of style I truly love. The soundtrack was beautiful and I understand why David Lynch had this on vinyl. It makes the movie even more atmospheric, while this already is one of the most atmospheric movies I’ve seen. This movie doesn’t approach the topics, such as surreality, as extreme as other directors like Lynch, but it still feels like a dream and another universe at times. I have so much love for Lost River and it’s a movie I already want to rewatch and analyze even more. Even if it’s just for having the same feelings as on my first watch. I felt completely absorbed by it and I can’t recommend this movie enough. That’s what I would call a modern masterpiece. Definitely one of my favourites.