Critics at Cannes Slam Ryan Gosling's Directorial Debut

Beloved Internet meme Ryan Gosling channels more than a bit of David Lynch in the trailer for his directorial debut, Lost River. But so far, critics who screened the film at the Cannes Film Festival have been less than kind in their reviews.

The film, which Gosling wrote and directed, centers around a teen who finds a road that leads to an underwater town. Via ABC News:

Christina Hendricks (“Mad Men”) stars as a single mother, Billy, to a toddler and a teenager named Bones (Iain De Caestecker). They live in a run-down building amid the detritus of a Detroit neighborhood where they’re behind on their mortgage. Bones lives in fear of the local gangster named Bully (Matt Smith), while Billy, out of desperation for money, begins performing at an underworld nightclub featuring bloody acts of horror. (Gosling’s girlfriend Eva Mendes plays a star performer.)

The film, originally titled How To Catch A Monster premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday and lots of critics sort of hated it.

IndieWire has a round up of the best of the worst reviews, like this one from The Playlist:

In general, Gosling as director wears his influences on his sleeve. Much of the photography, some of the imagery, and all of the violence is borrowed from his work with Nicolas Winding Refn, there are some surreal, unexplained horror touches that feel like Dario Argento, and the post-Katrina vibe, fable-ish magic realism and use of seemingly non-professional actors in supporting roles makes it feel a little like “Beasts Of The Southern Wild,” just with a bunch of white people. It’s an unruly mash-up of things that Gosling digs, without much original thought to it.

OUCH. Haters. Don’t worry, Ryan, I’m still going to go see it! Well—I probably won’t go to the theater to see it. I’ll rent it on iTunes. Or maybe I’ll just catch it when it’s on HBO some time. But I’m totally still going to watch this. Critics be damned.