Review: You Were Never Really Here

You Were Never Really Here
Cert: 15 / 90 mins / Dir. Lynne Ramsey / Trailer



I'm not going to lie, as intriguing as the trailer for You Were Never Really Here looked, the pullquote-assertion of "Taxi Driver meets Drive" did not fill me with gleeful joy; partly because of the self-aggrandisement of that statement, and partly because I'm one of about twelve people who didn't particularly enjoy either movie*¹.

Anyhow, this is based on Jonathan Ames' book of the same name, and adapted for the screen by director Lynne Ramsey. A shady senator hires 'urban mercenary' Joe (Joaquin Phoenix*²) to recover his kidnapped daughter Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), a job which is messy and successful in equal measure. But before Joe can return the girl to her father, the senator is found dead at the foot of a high-rise, part of a conspiracy which will unfold very close to home...

It's grim and it's thoughtful and it's quite, quite marvellous. Phoenix makes his performance look simultaneously draining yet effortless; every frown, scowl and grimace adding to his humanity, rather than creating a mask to hide it. Although the film's violence is frequent and unflinching, he doesn't exude menace so much as an exhausted, numb fury, sick of juggling the mundanity of everyday life and his own PTSD - which for a man in Joe's line of work is even more terrifying.

But this isn't a romp of Wickian proportions. Ramsey's work is beautifully shot and paced, the lingering camerawork and measured lack of rushed exposition testing the audience's patience from the start*³. From a film-making, story-telling point of view, this is a meticulous ballet of contemplative anger. It's also the second film I watched in one day where people get attacked with hammers. So that's a thumbs-up from me...

The film isn't an easy-watch and very deliberately so, but You Were Never Really Here is a thing of savage beauty.

Drive, Blue Ruin.



If you can, it is.
(this movie doesn't have a very wide release, unfortunately).



It's a buy-er, for the nights when you feel like watching Scarface but only have half that time available.



It's certainly high on everyone's list.



If you start railing against it, that's likely.



There isn't.



Level 2: So, Joaquin is in this (obviously), and he was also in 2012's The Master along with Laura 'Holdo' Dern.





*¹ Both are works where everyone told me how masterful and life-changing they'd be before I'd watched them, perhaps building unrealistically high expectations. It took me three attempts to watch all of Drive. The pullquote's comparison is narratively and tonally apt of course, except that in You Were Never Really Here, Joaquin Phoenix plays the interesting character which Drive's Ryan Gosling doesn't. There. I said it. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² I definitely like Michael Stuhlbarg best when he's being his Joaquin Phoenix character. You can't see the join. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ As the final screening of Saturday's #FilmDay, this was the largest audience of my day, and also the film least suited to having an auxiliary soundtrack of popcorn rustling. Not that this stopped them, of course. That said, this was also the screening featuring one patron who'd sneaked his dog into the cinema in a bag (to the animal's credit, it wasn't disruptive or distressed at all, it just made sporadic, curious yelps) and was seen as the credits rolled with a 600ml bottle of beer in his hand, not a single fuck given. So that was a new one, at least... ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Selma

Selma
Cert: 12A / 128 mins / Dir. Ava DuVernay / Trailer



And there was me thinking all the Important™ films were done for the year. This relatively late entry to the Films You Really Should See Before All The Explosions-and-Superhero-Movies Start category centres around the voting-rights marches from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, led by Martin Luther King Jr. The film opens in 1964 with King being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, yet still being strung along on civil-rights issues by the then-president Johnson.

Although it rarely pushes the boundaries of its 12A certificate, Selma isn't always an easy-watch (and nor is it meant to be). A lot of the racial tension in the first act feels slightly melodramatic (not unlike The Butler*¹, with whom it shares four cast members, oddly), until you almost instantly remember that while the film isn't a documentary, the events in it were documented and did happen.

There's a definite feeling that at times Selma is only presenting one aspect of a much larger story (which it is, by its own admission, but even so…), and that a viewer will get more from the film if they already know all the details anyway. Scripted exposition helps set the timeline, but I didn't feel fully immersed until the final act. Overall, the whole thing seems to work better as a historical document than a work presenting any new insight into political ideals. Then again, how much of a fresh take is really needed when the principles of the story are so apparent?

David Oyelowo's performance is absolutely astounding as Martin Luther King, to the point where you forget you're watching an actor (similar to Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady). The supporting cast is also incredibly strong and has a heavy Brit-presence (Ejogo, Roth, Wilkinson in addition to Oyelowo) considering all the characters are American. Although it has to be said that Tom Wilkinson's performance as President Lyndon Johnson is better than his accent. Speaking of whom, it interested me to note that Johnson is explicitly shown as 'doing the right thing' because of its perceived effect on his legacy, rather than steadfastly believing in it. I'm afraid my US history isn't much of anything, so if any readers could let me know whether this is an accurate assessment, that'd be lovely, thanks.

Elsewhere, Oprah Winfrey is always just Oprah Winfrey before any character she plays. And while the set and wardrobe departments all give an outstanding display of 1965, Common looks so out of place it's almost like he's stepped out of a time-machine, somehow. But we also get some beautiful moments of clean, atmospheric photography from lens-chief Bradford Young, that I wished had continued for longer.

But aside from my snarky criticisms and wanting to be spoon-fed history, Selma is a very good film, and you really should see it.

It is, although catch it while you can since it doesn't seem to have that wide of a release from where I'm sitting.



Probably a renter. As great as it is, it's debatable how often you'll watch it.



For Oyelowo, certainly.



It does, but nothing more than that.



Maybe a little.



There isn't.



David Oyelowo is the voice of Agent Kallus in Star Wars Rebels.







*¹ Sorry, that should be Lee Daniels' The Butler. Sorry, Lee. Sorry. That's World Of Blackout's Sorry.

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.