The fantasy thriller film Lost River is written, produced and directed by Ryan Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson, The Ides of March). It’s his directorial debut. Lost River is about a single mother (Christina Hendricks, Mad Men) who is swept into a dark lifestyle after facing economic difficulties while her teenage son (Iain De Caestecker, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) discovers a road that leads to a secret underwater town.
The film didn’t receive great reviews from its debut at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The Telegraph called it “dumbfoundingly poor” and The Guaridan called it “colossally indulgent, shapeless” but it was an opportunity for Gosling to work again with Eva Mendes (they met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines), the mother of his daughter Esmeralda. Mendes plays Cat, a dancer at a David Lynchian nightclub who — at the beginning of the film — gets knifed to death.
