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 "Lost River," written and directed by "Drive" star Gosling
and out in U.S. theaters and video-on-demand on Friday, follows
the coming-of-age tale of a boy named Bones against the stark,
desolate backdrop of Detroit's decaying towns.
"People are living in specific neighborhoods and conditions that
feel like it could only happen in a movie," Gosling said at last
month's South By Southwest Festival in Austin, where the film
made its U.S. premiere.
The film encompasses deeply saturated, striking images of
burning houses, overgrown streets and an eerie underwater lost
town, blurring the lines of real and surreal and lending itself
to Gosling's urban fairytale format.
"You could feel like you're the last people on earth, that the
world doesn't care about you, and we wanted to tap into the
universal themes in that," he said.
As Bones (Iain de Caestecker) attempts to scrape together money
and his mother (Christina Hendricks) is forced to become a
macabre performance artist to save their family home.
Bully (Matt Smith) is the scissor-wielding villain and Rat (Saoirse
Ronan), the princess next door who is not quite waiting to be
rescued, is among the film's many steely female characters.
"I grew up with strong female characters in my life and that's
growing, and I just feel like that's my reality," said Gosling,
who recently welcomed a baby daughter with actress Eva Mendes,
who also stars in the film.
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"There aren't many scenes that have just women interacting with each
other, and a lot of the time, it is to support the male in the
middle of that," Ronan added. "I think that's starting to change."
After premiering at 2014's Cannes Film Festival, the film received
poor reviews, with Variety's Justin Chang calling it an
"inauspicious debut."
"My review of those reviews? I give those reviews two thumbs down,"
Gosling said.
Instead, the actor-director is hoping the film finds its audience
through theaters and video-on-demand including HBO's standalone
service HBO Now, which launched this week with exclusive early
access to "Lost River."
"It's not for everyone but it has its audience," he said. "It's a
very specific and personal movie, and you have to get it out there
to find who it's for."
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Marguerita Choy)
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