Review of You Were Never Really Here (2017) by Greatmartin — 26 Apr 2018

Everybody must go to see this movie and then tell me what it is about! As soon as I got home I went to read some reviews and only if I give spoilers to explain what some of them saw and I didn't could I explain my puzzlement.

I went to see this movie only because Joaquin Phoenix is in it (and the 2 stars are for him) and I believe he is a very underappreciated actor by the general public but, justifiably, is appreciated by the critics. Though I never understood why he is the mess he is--that is NOT a spoiler--in his performance, you can see he is a tortured man and I could give you a dozen guesses as to why he is but there is no way that I could validate even one after seeing the movie. You can see and understand the few, very, few tender emotions he shows in one scene with his mother and another with a young girl.

There is a lot of violence, destruction, terror and blood in this film both on and off the screen from guns to hammers to knives to physical hand to hand brutality.

I don't know nor understand the director and writer Lynne Ramsay's reason for this movie and/or what it is about but I was impressed by the movie's score by Johnny Greenwood which at times, when needed, loud, booming and provides rhythm to what is happening.