Day 120 - You Were Never Really Here


Day 120          You Were Never Really Here [2017]
                          
Screenplay                    Lynne Ramsey
Based on                       ‘You Were Never Really Here’ by Jonathan Ames
Director                         Lynne Ramsey
Cinematography            Thomas Townend
Music                            Jonny Greenwood
Leads                            Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Judith Roberts, Alessandro Nivola, John Doman
Production                     Film4 Productions, British Film Institute, Why Not Productions, Page 114

IMDb                                 7/10
Rotten Tomatoes                86%

I need to watch this again. I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I fell asleep in this. I want to stress that it was because I was jetlagged and not because the film sucks. Although don’t watch it if you are sleepy because, despite the graphic violence in it, the cinematography and music are dreamy and mellow, and there is little dialogue. Joaquin Phoenix plays an army veteran who suffers from PTSD and now is a hitman who hunts down sex traffickers/kidnappers. The film tiptoes along a thin fence that separates hallucinations and reality, creating many discombobulating scenes. Phoenix is eternally good, yet again proving he’s one of the best actors of his generation. I’ve mentioned it before (excuse my bad memory of when), and I’ll say it again; being able to act with little to no dialogue and still give a mesmeric performance is what separates the legendary actors from the Anne Hathaways of the industry (cheap shot – sorry Anne). Think DiCaprio in The Revenant, Hanks in Castaway – it’s the purest form of acting and it’s what makes Charlie Chaplin so iconic. He was a brilliant orator, as we learnt during his speech in The Great Dictator, and yet he is famous for bringing whole audiences from tears to laughter without uttering a syllable. Phoenix isn’t quite there yet but perhaps it’s unfair to compare anyone with Chaplin. The hazy camera work and moody music skip hand in hand around Phoenix juxtaposing his troubled character. I liked it because it felt original, so Ramsey must be commended for her work. You won’t all like it – that I can say with confidence – especially if you’re more Order of the Phoenix than Joaquin Phoenix.

Acting                             4 / 4
Writing                            3 / 4
Cinematography           3.5 / 4
Music                           3.5 / 4

HWF rating                 3 / 4

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