Ryan Gosling's 'Lost River' gets its first trailer, official release date

If you're wondering how you haven't heard about Lost River — the screenwriting and directorial debut of Ryan Gosling starring Christina Hendricks, Matt Smith, Eva Mendes and Saoirse Ronan — there's a pretty good reason why. After its Cannes premiere, Gosling's film was met with some fairly nasty reviews, and Warner Bros. has struggled to figure out what to do with the arthouse film.

While it appears their main tactic is to throw the feature under the rug, they are giving the movie a limited theatrical run, despite early reports suggesting it was going straight to DVD. It comes to limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles, as well as on digital platforms everywhere, on April 10. To celebrate its release date announcement, the studio released the film's first official trailer today.

The first promo, courtesy of Warner Bros., features all the stars mentioned above in dark, neon colored locations and/or dingy backdrops. Considered a dark fable centered on themes on love, family and the fight for survival, it's apparent Gosling has a keen eye for unusual shots and lighting fixures, which the actor created alongside cinematographer Benoît Debie (who shot Spring Breakers). That said, however, Gosling clearly holds his influences — including Gasper Noe, Harmony Korine, David Lynch, as well as Derek Cianfrance and Nicolas Winding Refn, who worked with Gosling in their last two films — very apparently on his sleeves. Not that one or two of them mind it, of course.

The gumbled plot seen just from this teaser can make some people understand what critics disliked about the experimental picture at Cannes. There's no denying, however, that Lost River holds an engagingly surreal look and feel to it, one that will likely attract the feature an audience. It's not hard to imagine this kind of film — no matter how good or bad it ultimately is — gaining some sort of cult following in the years to come. Of course, it's easy to understand why Warner Bros. wanted to sell this movie off initially, for there's no way this kind of picture would get wide audience appeal — unfortunately.

This is not the first time footage from Gosling's feature has come online. Clips featuring Smith and others were available back when the movie was making its premiere back in May.

With that, check out the trailer for yourself to see what the leading man creates when he's behind the camera:

Image courtesy of INFphoto.com