You Were Never Really Here

Looper007

Surprised this hasn't got a thread yet, the new film from Lynne Ramsey starring always great Joaquin Phoenix, which was coming off massive wins in Cannes and some great reviews. A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.

I was quite taken aback by this film, I went in expecting something more in the lines of Taxi Driver or Drive but got something completely different overall. This is more of a study of a character then anything to do with plot, as I read from a reviewer from a Variety "this more concerned with the man then the hit". The cinematography was beautiful and the soundtrack from Jonny Greenwood is excellent as usual. The Sound design is some of the best you hear from a film. I loved that went against tropes of where normally these type of stories go

You fully expect Joe at the end to get revenge on Alessandro Nivola's (only in the film for more then a 1 minute if that) Senator for killing his Mother and people around him and to save the young girl, in most films you get a bloody violent ending. But no you don't see Joe take out any of the Senator's bodyguard's and when you think he get his hands on the film's villain, he's already had his throat slit by the girl he's there to rescue

. I can see some people been massively disappointed in that but I loved it. Also loved the scene when

Joe kills the two guys who killed his mother and waiting for him to come home. After he kills one and fatally wounds the other. Instead of finishing off the guy like in most films, he lays on the floor beside him, sings a song with him and holds his hand.

Joaquin Phoenix pretty much carries the film on his shoulders, and probably delivers one of his best performances. You only get to see Joe's backstory in snippet's throughout the film

He was abused by his father with a hammer, He was solider and has PSTD and that he was involved in human trafficking

but you can see it on Phoenix's face that Joe's been through some stuff in his life. I loved the small clips you see of him with his ailing mother. If anyone has seen the film can anyone answer this is Joe

Gay, cause you see a clip of him in a room with a big burly guy but I don't know if that's him thinking of his dad and he mentions he had a girlfriend 20 years ago

.

Aside from Phoenix, the performance from Ekaterina Samsonov as Nina was very striking. I really find it mind boggling that the film has a 18 cert, I've seen more violent action films that got a 16. I assume it's cause of it's subject matter dealing with Child prostitution. But it's not terribly violent film. I think a 16 cert would have been more suiting. But overall a fantastic film that won't be to everyone's taste's. 9/10