A review of the film “You Were Never Really Here”
Scottish writer and director Lynne Ramsay has created a really dark look at American society in this grim tale of the search for a missing teenage girl who is being held as a sex slave.
Out to retrieve her is Joe, a Gulf War veteran suffering post-traumatic stress, whose weapon of choice is a hammer (it is a violent movie but one rarely sees the violence overtly). Joaquin Phoenix is mesmerising as the laconic loner on a mission in a film with minimal dialogue but lots of atmosphere.
The title of the protagonist and his vigilante role reminded me of a film called “Joe”, released as long ago as 1970, but the nightmarish vision of this 2017 work is in a category of its own.
April 5th, 2019 at 7:48 pm
Worst, most depressing film I’ve had the misfortune to see. Many in the audience walked out and by the end I wished I had too.
April 5th, 2019 at 10:47 pm
It’s certainly not a feel-good movie.