Do you ever want to feel artistically superior to all of your friends? Maybe you are tired of your friends talking about how great the latest action film is and want to sound better. Maybe you want to impress your date with obscure film trivia. Maybe you think that knowing a lot about film history and art will somehow validate your meaningless existence and will replace that ever-growing pit in your heart that tells you that you don’t matter and no one cares about you. Well, don’t worry! Because I watch a bunch of art house films and can give you recommendations on what to watch and what to feel superior about! So without any delay, let’s get pretentious!
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BOY was I worried about this one. For over a year now I’ve heard nothing but praise for this film. This film premiered in Cannes, last year and ever since I feel like I haven’t been able to avoid talking about this film. And I’m not even a huge Lynne Ramsey fan! I’ve seen We Need to Talk About Kevin, and I thought it was pretty good. I wasn’t blown away by it, but that is primarily because I was a big fan of the book and had too high of expectations. But I thought she was clearly a stylish director with a distinct vision and had nothing against her. I had no reason to think this film was going to be bad. And every film person around me was like “HOT DAMN HAVE YOU SEEN THE TRAILER/POSTER/PROMOTIONAL TELEVISION AD FOR THE NEW LYNNE RAMSAY FILM, WHICH NAME IS LONG AND I HONESTLY CAN’T FULL REMEMBER WHAT EXACTLY IT IS?” And I’m like “yeah”. And that’s how that conversation goes. And usually, when this kind of situation happens, I end up seeing the film and thinking “yeah”. And that’s about it. So I was worried that I was going to walk into this film and think it was just okay. But it’s actually a bit higher than okay! So that’s nice.
You Were Never Really Here is a new thriller from director Lynne Ramsay. You Were Never Really Here follows Joaquin Phoenix as Joe, a man whose job is to find kidnapped girls when the client doesn’t feel comfortable going to the police. Joe is hired to find the daughter of a state senator and then things start going south fast. This is one of those films that talks quietly and moves loudly. You might not fully understand every element of the film. But you will understand enough to get from point a to point b.
The first thing I will mention is how good the acting in the film is. Joaquin Phoenix is great as always. And what this film does that I thought was an interesting choice was to cast primarily unknown actors. Each actor has been in a few films here and there. But with the exception of Phoenix, most of the actors are fairly low level and non-famous actors. It definitely adds to the experience and disbelief. And although almost no character has more than maybe ten lines, they say so much with those lines as well as what their emotions and actions say. I want to give a special shoutout to Judith Roberts, who plays Joe’s Mother. As she might be one of the major highlights of the film.
Briefly, I want to point out that while I watched the film I very much enjoyed the soundtrack, which is composed by Jonny Greenwood, who also did Phantom Thread last year. While I enjoyed it when I was watching the film, I write this review almost a week later and I can’t remember most of the score off the top of my head. So I guess keep that into consideration.
I think if I had to give a favorite aspect of the film, I would list the editing. How the film is presented I think is, for a lack of a better word, charming. How the story is told is woven with Joe’s own personal PTSD which makes for a very interestingly presented film and story. Again, you might not understand exactly every part of the film. But you will get from point a to point b. You might not understand why Joe has PTSD. But you will understand the effects on him which is really the point of the film.
At a really brisk runtime, I would recommend this film to those that are looking for a more artsy thriller, or at least a different thriller. I described this film to a couple people as what would happen to Liam Neeson’s character if Taken didn’t have a happy ending. It’s a slow burn until it isn’t. But when you get there, you realize that the fire of the slow burn was leading to an explosion.