You Were Never Really Here (2018)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Lynne Ramsay is known for her incredible use of pure cinematic craft to delicately build empathy and engagement with her subject matter, and her latest character study 'You Were Never Really Here,' demonstrates that to the nth degree with its minimal use of dialogue to slowly unravel the person behind its intriguing central guy. Yes, we begin with horrifying shots of a mysterious figure suffocating himself, cleaning blood off a hammer and burning the picture of a young girl in a grungy hotel room, but then those outside expectations are slowly subverted as we realise he actually rescues trafficked girls - albeit in extremely brutal ways. He's lonely and has a very troubled past that eats away at him and is slowly revealed to us in flashbacks, and all of that is what's so effective about the film as the reveals are so tentatively judged so we really begin to understand and feel for this difficult man - a fact helped equally by a typically great performance from Joaquin Phoenix.
  But Ramsay equally doesn't just focus on studying him, as she's never a filmmaker to just leave a character where they are and here is again no exception as the advancing plot allows us to invest in a journey and serves as a tool to investigate him further. There's no shying away from the horrifying nature of everything on display either of course, and the surrounding atmosphere of the poisonous New York city is similarly all-consuming and brings a very 'Taxi Driver,'-esque quality to your understanding of the central character.
  In the end then, what you've got is another expertly judged and perfectly crafted film from Ramsay that builds an engaging and fascinating picture of a man in a horrifying place to a degree where you're truly captivated and connected to him in a way that very few films ever manage.
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: There's nothing outwardly thrilling here like there was in the likes of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin,' and that does feel a bit frustrating especially when this is practically an arthouse 'Taken,' in mechanical terms.
  VERDICT: 'You Were Never Really Here,' is another brilliant piece of work from Lynne Ramsay that uses pure cinematic craft to build a captivating picture of a very interesting character, and as a result it's easily one of the very best films of the year so far, and one of Ramsay's best works yet.

  Like?

  0 member like this review.