In the world of crime thrillers, there typically isn’t much wiggle room. Either a detective, private or otherwise, it attempting to solve some puzzle or criminals are doing criminal things and the audience gets to choose their level of moral culpability. The lead characters is almost always flawed, whether it’s via unsavory vices or the aforementioned illegal ventures (often both), and the genre often gives birth to memorable anti-heroes as a result. If nothing else, You Were Never Really Here raises the bar, or at least expands the playbook, for the types of characters at the center of these stories. Credit to Amazon Studios for recognizing something interesting and attaining the distribution rights.
Writer/Director Lynne Ramsay has definitely come into her own as a filmmaker. Adapting the Jonathan Ames book of the same name, her intensity, style and passion jumped off the screen. Despite what I had seen about the film beforehand, I couldn’t quite place my finger on what exactly it was. Very clearly a violent crime drama in some way, but it turned out to be so much more. Ramsay executed an artfully made character piece with an acute focus on mental health that also happened to be a brutal and gritty crime drama…and the fact she shot it all in just 29-days speaks volumes.
The film’s strongest asset was its ability to pull so many different emotional strings. In many ways, or at least in several moments, the movie is a dark comedy. In others, it’s a frightening portrait of a man who has become progressively more unhinged but has still assumed the responsibility of caring for his elderly mother. Making that relationship work wasn’t simple, but it carries a great deal of gravity and pays off rewardingly down the line. Ramsay’s screenplay operates best between the lines, wonderfully capturing a character who is intricately layered, without a heavy reliance on exposition. This is a smartly executed thriller that reaches far beyond its genre boundaries. She deserves a great deal of credit for tackling some unsavory material with such style, both in the screenplay and in her ambition as a director. At this point in the year, she has to be in the conversation for Best Director.
Joaquin Phoenix has never been the type to shy away from intense roles. There is a fervent electricity behind his eyes, especially in this role, and it’s served him well throughout his career. Often times during the film, I found myself wondering where he went internally. His character, Joe, is tormented by a past that is usurping more and more of his life. We only get glimpses, but it’s clear he saw some terrible things as a soldier and has even deeper psychological problems stemming from his childhood. He’s since moved on to tracking down missing young girls where he gets to see more human depravity and exercise some of his demons via ball peen hammer along the way. In this dark place Phoenix is illuminating. He delivered one of his finest performances, displaying a demonstrative intensity that is simultaneously laser focused and bouncing off the walls. Ramsay must establish quite a profound bond with her performers to take them to the depths which they require. Joe is an immensely complex character and Phoenix brought him to life with a dark sense of humor that made him more authentic and played surprisingly well in certain moments. It’s easy to see why he took home Best Actor Honors at Cannes and he’s almost certainly leading the pack when it comes to the end of the year awards shows. He has two other projects due out this year, Mary Magdalene and Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, with a untitled Joker film in the works.
Adding to the untraditional nature of this project, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood created very tense and striking original music. There has been a sudden resurgence of sharp and piercing string music over the last year or so, reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann’s iconic Psycho theme and you can hear elements of it here. Greenwood is coming off an Oscar nod for his work on Phantom Thread and wasn’t shy about pushing the envelope. In numerous scenes, dialogue isn’t at the forefront. In its place is a fascinating dance between Phoenix’s physical embodiment of the character and Greenwood’s powerful compositions. The two were so congruent, I wondered if Joaquin had listened to the music before shooting his scenes. This was an exceptional score that I think will, unfortunately, get buried as the deluge of Oscar hopefuls begin to spill out in the final quarter of 2018. My favorite last year, Daniel Lopatin’s score for Good Time, went mostly overlooked at the end of the year shows, but he did take home Best Composer at Cannes. Don’t worry Jonny we hear you.
To match what we are seeing and hearing, Thomas Townend had to shoot this in gritty fashion. There is some stellar juxtaposition between the broad, and often beautiful, exterior wide shots and the cramped, tightly framed interiors. The shoot took advantage of natural lighting to cultivate a dark aura that persisted throughout much of the movie, but gave way to some important moments of illumination. It goes hand in hand with Joe’s dichotomic personality…beauty in freedom and ugliness in confinement. Townend had mostly served as cinematographer on shorts but has always stayed busy. He had worked with Ramsay before, but not as cinematographer. Nevertheless, he certainly left his fingerprint on this movie and it’s the kind of effort that could catapult his career.
Piecing it all together, Joe Bini had a tough job as the film editor. Too much here, not enough there and suddenly everything would be inharmonious. There’s quite a lot going on and many of the scenes required a lingering touch…an extra moment of silence, so to speak. Most of the time when a movie feels long, it’s not a good sign. However, in this instance, you get a pretty wide coverage area in only an hour and half. Crafting a concise and well paced 90 minutes that still hits all the marks seems like something of bygone era, but Bini pulled it of splendidly. At no point does the film ever seem to waste time and the pace is brisk without being hurried…an odd microcosm of the project’s 29-day shooting schedule.
You won’t see many films like this…you just won’t. It’s maniacally ambitious and vibrant. Even at its worst, the performance and production quality are strong enough to see it through the turbulence. An unfortunate side-effect of Phoenix’s brilliant showing was that everyone else got pushed aside. Ekaterina Samsonov was pretty good playing the young girl Joe was looking for, but she wasn’t asked to do too much. The story is ultimately about Joe, but it’s noticeably a one-sided affair. Even so, it has a strong case as the best film of the year so far. It was my favorite movie to this point in 2018, but I tend to lean towards strong acting performances in my personal taste.
Recommendation: Go see it and judge for yourself. I get the feeling this movie is going to have a very small niche audience, but that demographic will really appreciate what the film is. It is graphically violent, so keep that in mind when making your decision.
Grade: B+