{"id":5310,"date":"2018-04-19T14:39:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T21:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5310"},"modified":"2018-04-19T14:40:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T21:40:18","slug":"review-you-were-never-really-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5310","title":{"rendered":"Review: YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joaquin Phoenix is a brutish but pensive instrument of death in Lynne Ramsay\u2019s violent, but introspective minor masterpiece.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"\"\"Fantastical and savage, \u201cYou Were Never Really Here\u201d has something to say about the lingering effects of post-traumatic stress. Extraordinary filmmaker Ramsay (\u201cWe Need to Talk About Kevin\u201d) uses the gritty thriller genre to vividly comment on the effects of a lifetime of violence. And in the mercurial Phoenix her adaptation of Jonathan Ames\u2019 novel resonates with a brutal beauty as one man\u2019s suicidal emotional state is channeled into a righteous force.<\/p>\n

Starting with expert, bloody use of a ball peen hammer, we meet the troubled fixer Joe (Phoenix) as he performs his duties. In a workmanlike manner, Joe dispenses a twisted variety of justice for the highest bidder. He spends much of his time on dark and dangerous streets, in seedy hotels, looking ragged and torn\u2014abused and the abuser. At times, we see Joe purchasing seemingly innocuous supplies in a neighborhood hardware store. It is there, under the flickering fluorescents, where we see him finding small joy or comfort in just the right hammer.<\/p>\n

Prior to the opening credits, Joe has done something violent\u2014someone\u2019s been badly damaged. He doesn\u2019t linger at the scene of the crime. After plying his deadly craft, he hastily makes his exit from a squalid location. We follow him down cramped hallways exiting out the back door. Quiet, methodical, and intense, Joe\u2019s not someone to mess with.<\/p>\n

But there is another side of him. Joe surreptitiously returns to his family home where he takes care of his elderly mother. She is the only thing that keeps him alive, but as time passes, he\u2019s getting closer and closer to ending his life.<\/p>\n

One day, he\u2019s hired by a politician to retrieve the politician\u2019s teenish daughter from the clutches of bad men that are sexually exploiting her. The politician tells Joe that he wants Joe to hurt them. Joe\u2019s response is stoic, but the message is clear. Hurting people, especially bad people, comes easy to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Were Never Really Here\u201d is a meditative film singularly concerned with character. Joe\u2019s backstory involves a violent father and time spent in the military on the field of battle. His life has been marked by violence, and its left him hobbled, but with a talent for channeling its force. Finding good in bad, finding purpose and meaning, finding himself in the world, Joe\u2019s on a journey. And we\u2019re taken along with him at a critical point in his development.<\/p>\n

Ramsay is a visionary. Pure and simple, she\u2019s a major talent that delivers rich textured images featuring complex characters experiencing difficulty that often manifests violently. Ramsay\u2019s remarkable \u201cWe Need to Talk About Kevin\u201d is a marvel and in \u201cYou Were Never Really Here,\u201d she goes a bit smaller with a tighter visual scope and grittier narrative. \u201cHere\u201d is easier to digest than \u201cKevin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cinematography is a beautiful, bleak, smeary mess of muted colors from Thomas Townend (\u201cAttack the Block\u201d). The mood is captured perfectly by Townend\u2019s camera. He shoots Phoenix in a way that makes maximum use of the actor\u2019s weirdness\u2014his odd body and posture featured in a menacing and troubling way. And moments of magical realism are blended visually with startling results.<\/p>\n

The music is also a highlight with fine work from Radiohead guitarist and recent Oscar nominee Jonny Greenwood (\u201cPhantom Thread\u201d). Like Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s award-winning film, \u201cHere\u201d is worth watching for the score alone. And it\u2019s a testament to Ramsay\u2019s stature as an auteur that such talented and interesting people work with her.<\/p>\n

Ramsay is such an uncompromising cinematic voice that some viewers may be turned off by her dense and challenging approach. With 2011\u2019s \u201cKevin,\u201d she gave us a film that is hard to revisit. That movie was a kaleidoscope of images so raw and coupled with the narrative so intricately structured that I was overwhelmed. In my review<\/a>, I struggled to capably describe it. Ramsay makes art that defies genre conventions and masterfully inspires discussion thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Were Never Really Here\u201d continues a fine director\u2019s discussion about the effect of a violent society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Violent impact, Lynne Ramsay continues her discussion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[241,245,242,50,244,246,243],"class_list":["post-5310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-joaquin-phoenix","tag-jonny-greenwood","tag-lynne-ramsay","tag-movie-review","tag-paul-thomas-anderson","tag-thomas-townend","tag-you-were-never-really-here","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5313,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5310\/revisions\/5313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}