Ryan Gosling joins a long list of actors who have now officially made the jump from actor to director this morning when his directorial debut Lost River premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this morning. In one of the festival's most packed screenings this week, critics appeared to not be so kind to Gosling's first film behind the camera.
Starring Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, Eva Mendes and Matt Smith, among others, the film has been receiving mixed to negative reviews from the press thus far, with some being far kinder on the film than others.
One of the most negative comes from Wesley Morris of Grantland, who tweeted:
If a $200 haircut and $900 shades were given lots of money to defecate on Detroit, the result would be Ryan Gosling's directing debut.
— Wesley Morris (@Wesley_Morris) May 20, 2014
While others were not that mean, they weren't much kinder:
Ryan Gosling's directorial debut LOST RIVER is like the residue of a collision between GUMMO & TWIN PEAKS. No, really. #cannes
— erickohn (@erickohn) May 20, 2014
So, Ryan Gosling's LOST RIVER: Not good, but some good things you've seen elsewhere. http://t.co/7iOAFI7umH #cannes #cannes2014
— erickohn (@erickohn) May 20, 2014
Ryan Gosling's Lost River is a conceited clunker - and yet there are great images and mad energy. Review up later #Cannes2014
— Peter Bradshaw (@PeterBradshaw1) May 20, 2014
Lost River: Ryan Gosling confuses 'making film' with 'assembling Tumblr of David Lynch & Mario Bava gifs'. Dumb-foundingly poor #Cannes2014
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) May 20, 2014
Ryan Gosling's directing debut: let's see God forgive this...
— Jonathan Romney (@JonathanRomney) May 20, 2014
Impressive impressionistic well-wrought debut for #RyanGosling with Lost River. Very @DAVID_LYNCH!
— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) May 20, 2014
LOST RIVER: Blue Velvet Of The Southern Wild. A pile-up of Gosling's influences & ideas: not good, as such, but not boring #cannes
— olilyttelton (@olilyttelton) May 20, 2014
These are just a handful that can be found floating around social media sites today.
Originally titled How to Catch a Monster, Gosling, who also wrote the movie's script, first announced that he would be making his directorial debut with this movie almost two years ago. It was last month that the movie was announced to be part of the festival's line-up with its new title.
Even if some people didn't think it was great, a common thread among the critics was that, despite the movie's flaws, it was not boring and quite a few felt that, should he like to have one, Gosling could probably have a lot of promise in the future as a filmmaker.