Review of You Were Never Really Here (2017) by Mmadnessgames — 11 Jun 2018

I'm tired of guns and graphic violence. I'm also tired of vigilante films with silent protagonists who brutally murder criminals... I'm happy for these vigilante people to exist, but I don't enjoy watching people being bludgeoned by hammers.

These kind of films remind me of public executions... Personally, I don't want to watch random people being executed. Even if it was somebody who had wronged me personally, I wouldn't enjoy watching them die.

It's a little sick to take pleasure in that sort of thing.

You Were Never Really Here (bad title) tries to elevate itself above it's competition by being artsy... There are a lot of quick flashbacks to traumatic events in the protagonists past. The cinematography is beautiful.

It also attempts to transcend itself by not engaging with a convoluted plot... It achieves this by bypassing plot altogether... I guess the logic is: it's hard to criticise something that doesn't exist.

As others have pointed out, there's basically no dialogue. And, maybe this is refreshing (somewhat) in comparison to bad dialogue. But, in the same sense, the lack of a song is better than a bad song. In other words, the absence of something is not an accomplishment.

Phoenix sports a crazy-man beard throughout the film and he mutters all of his dialogue. Apparently, this means it is a great performance?

Isn't it easier to not care about how you delivery dialogue? Isn't it easier to hit people with hammers, throw knives at floorboards, strangle yourself in cupboards, whimper hysterically, and put towels over your head... then to actually have to create any believable scenes with your character?

The film is drenched in dramatic images. It is a montage of "powerful" scenes, including traumatised child rape victims, brains being blown out, old people with dementia, repeated suicide attempts, etc. This is non-stop.

When humans see certain things, they have a spontaneous and uncontrollable emotional reaction. Like when children are dying of cancer. But, there needs to be an actual film crafted around these images. Otherwise, it's just gratuitous shock value.

That's what this film is.

It is sophomoric.

I don't like films with fight scenes, unless there is some context for them. The context here is a mumbling guy with a hammer caves in the sculls of various faceless bad guys in defence of child sex victims.

I didn't learn anything from this film. It didn't challenge me. It didn't make me think. Obviously child rapists are bad. We know that going in. So, I'm not sure why Hollywood actors pretending to kill fictional child rapists makes good cinema.

I guess some people secretly like to watch graphic violence and if the victim is a faceless pervert, that is enough justification for applause.

It's not a terrible film. But it is a welcome reminder that I'm too old for this sort of thing, and I'd rather spend my time watching something that engages my intellect or affects me emotionally in some way... My days of watching Hollywood people fight are over.

Cinematography aside, I can't help but think of Pro Wrestlers pretending to beat up the "bad" Pro Wrestler... Both are fake and both revolve around violence with flimsy justification/context. Although fans of this film would most likely object, there's not really a big difference between their respective audiences.

We Need to Talk About Kevin was a much better film.

Haven't seen any of Ramsay's other stuff, yet.