> Every city has its own history and hidden secrets.

It's not the first time the actors who reach a certain stage of their acting career to shift their gear to the direction mode. So this time it is none other than the Canadian import, Ryan Gosling. He produced, wrote and directed this fantasy-drama-mystery which looks like a semi apocalyptic film. Very interesting concept and the cast as well. Quite impressed by the narration with those suspenses, decent story as well, but kind of complicated to understand the mix its genre.

Actually, it was not a bad film, except the story won't go deeper into the characters to uncover them completely. Especially no details about the earlier years at the place where it sets in which what the title denoting. The rest of the developments are unpredictable yet created enough curiosity to hook with. The location was awesome, I mean it was kind of a wasteland, though perfectly matched to what script wanted. The overall idea of the film was like when 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' meets 'Goonies'.

The story did not deliver a satisfying ending after all those promises were made in the first two acts, but overall film was a much better than any fancy twist we would expect. So the film is not for everybody, only if you ready to accept any kind of turnover at any stage of the narration, even it is a very plain, then you can consider it. Not an ideal directional debut for Ryan, but definitely a fine first step to explore the field in the coming years. Surely he would come out with a masterpiece and I'm looking forward for that.

6/10