Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, the dark fantasy Lost River, is to be released direct to video-on-demand on the same day as a short engagement in cinemas, reports Variety.
The US trade bible confirmed the film will receive an extremely limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles, after being panned by critics at the Cannes film festival in May. It was originally reported that Lost River, which was announced under the alternate title How to Catch a Monster in 2012, would not be seen in cinemas at all following its poor reception.
Starring Gosling’s Drive co-star Christina Hendricks as a mother of two whose son discovers an underwater town, Lost River was described as “colossally indulgent, shapeless, often fantastically and unthinkingly offensive and at all times insufferably conceited” by the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, following its Cannes screening in the Un Certain Regard section. Other critics were in agreement, with the Telegraph’s Robbie Collin dishing out just one star and branding the movie “mouth-dryingly lousy”, while Total Film’s Matt Risley said it felt “like a student film with an A-List cast”.
Gosling’s film stars Hendricks, best known for her portrayal of Joan Harris in the long-running period television drama Mad Men, alongside Eva Mendes, Matt Smith, Saoirse Ronan and Iain de Caestecker. It is expected to arrive online in the second quarter of 2015.
