You Were Never Really There (2017)
Directed & Written by Lynne Ramsay based on the novel by Jonathan Ames, Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Ekaterina Samsonov.
Joe (Phoenix) is a military veteran and an ex-FBI officer who suffers from extreme PTSD and experiences hallucinations and disorientation, he lives with and cares for his elderly mother but also works as a ruthless and capable freelance enforcer aka a professional assassin.
When Joe is hired to locate and bring home the missing 13-year-old daughter of a New York senator what starts as a run-of-the-mill mission for Joe quickly begins to unravel and endangers Joe’s already thin grip on reality and his very existence in this world.
This film is a wonderful no-holds-barred neo-noir.
Written and directed by the great Lynne Ramsay.
This film beautifully presents you with a true anti-hero. A man who conducts himself like a hollow vessel, cold and calculating and capable of extreme brutal violence navigating through a corrupt seedy underworld.
Joaquin Phoenix is a tour de force he is just incredible in this movie.
I don't want to write too much and be spoiler-heavy because I want everyone to see this.
My main thoughts around this film are that this is a thriller which contains a violent anti-hero who brushes up against New York politicians and saves a young girl.
This plot obviously makes you think of the Martin Scorsese picture “Taxi Driver” (1976) but this film is so fresh and contemporary it is in no way derivative or retro.
Within the plot, it explores themes of struggles with mental illness and corruption within institutions, violence and the trafficking of children. I feel that Ramsey deftly handled the violence and the child’s endangerment with no celebration, glorification or fetishisation which I feel many male filmmakers would struggle to land this challenging subject matter as tastefully as Lynne Ramsay does here while also not compromising on the visceral punch and brutality within this film.
To think that two years later Joaquin starred in a thriller based around mental illness and violence but in a much more clunky way which very much fetishised the violence.
"Joker" (2019) also aesthetically very much dwelt in the past and was as derivative as "You Were Never Really Here" is original.
Unfortunately "Joker" was a massive hit and is apparently getting a sequel where and as far as I am aware Lynne Ramsey still struggles to get funding together for her desired projects even though in my opinion she is one of the most talented filmmakers working today!
It is just unfair.
You can watch “You Were Never Really Here” on the ITVX streaming service
You can rent the film via Apple TV or Amazon Prime for £3.49
You can buy and keep this film on Blu-ray from HMV for £7.99
