Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Billy, a single mother of two, is led into a macabre underworld while her teenage son, Bones, discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Both Billy and Bones must dive deep into the mystery if their family is to survive.
Ryan Gosling's directorial debut is visually sumptuous — the neon-drenched, decaying Michigan landscapes and underwater ghost town imagery are genuinely striking cinematographic achievements. However, the plot is thin and meandering, leaning heavily on atmosphere over narrative coherence, leaving character motivations underdeveloped. The performances are serviceable, with Iain De Caestecker and Eva Mendes doing solid work despite underwritten roles. The neo-noir surrealism draws obvious comparisons to Lynch and Refn, making it feel more derivative of its influences than truly singular. The ending feels abrupt and unsatisfying, failing to pay off the film's accumulated mystery.