No one can accuse Ryan Gosling of doing things the easy way. While many an actor-turned-director takes the easy route of making a feel-good crowd pleaser of a film as a directorial debut, Gosling has stunned, and in some cases, puzzled, critics at the Cannes Film Festival with his first film Lost River.

The film, which Gosling describes as a “dark fairy tale,” has received decidedly mixed reviews. While Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell heaps praise on Lost River, others call it “pretentious” or “derivative.” One thing is certain—this is the kind of film that viewers will either love or hate.

Although Lost River is visually stunning, it’s also undeniably dark, and audiences may be disturbed by what Howell calls “hallucinatory images of burning houses and bicycles, submerged streetscapes and savage nightclub scenes.” Those images can be credited to Benoît Debie, the cinematographer who was responsible for the look of last year’s hit Spring Breakers.

Gosling cast his real-life leading lady Eva Mendes as Cat, an entertainer who acts out bizarre and violent acts in a very strange nightclub. Also performing on the same stage is Billy, a cash-strapped single mom played by Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks.

While mom is pretending to slice off her face onstage, son Bones, played by Iain De Caestecker, is digging through ravaged houses for copper. During his explorations, he meets a sociopath named Bully (Matt Smith), falls for a girl named Rat (Saoirse Ronan) and comes across an underwater town. If this plot sounds strange in print, it is even more weird onscreen.

In the words of critic Howell, “The film is more like a psychedelic montage set to a soundtrack of 1950s pop and the eerie dreamscapes of composer Johnny Jewel.” This is certainly an ambitious undertaking from a fledgling director, and one that is certain to be the subject of much discussion on its release.