Lost River – Film Review

When it was screened at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Lost River was met with whistling from an indignant audience. Expectations for Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut – a noirish thriller set in decrepit Detroit with a soundtrack by Chromatics’ Johnny Jewel – were high. Playing Billy, a mother of two behind on the rent, Mad Men star Christina Hendricks leads a cast that includes ex-Dr Who actor Matt Smith as a face-chopping gang leader and Eva Mendes as a performer at the sadomasochistic club where Billy takes a job. Bar a tense supermarket stakeout, memorable moments are sorely lacking. It’s not quite deserving of whistling, but its potential to unsettle is undone by Gosling’s reliance on style over substance.