Review of You Were Never Really Here (2017) by Chris W — 07 Nov 2018

286. You Were Never Really Here. One intense movie! Intense soundtrack, intense action, intense subject matter. We meet a guy named Joe, sure he looks homeless, but in reality he's a war veteran that lives with his aging mother.

The audience gets just a few glimpses of Joe's background and they aren't pretty. Now he's dedicated his life to rescuing missing and exploited children, and more importantly for those that hire him, he punishes those responsible, very brutally, weapon of choice: ball-peen hammer.

And the one case the film focuses on, turns out to be very sinister indeed. Joaquin Phoenix is intense as Joe, a man unafraid of violence, but extremely tormented by his past. Definitely worth a watch.

(Side note: If you watch it, towards the beginning of the movie Joe exits his house, you can hear in the background a small dog barking like crazy. Joe pauses for a moment, twitches just a bit, camera cuts to his mom watching him out the front window, you hear the dog bark one final time, yelps as in pain and goes silent.

.. Do you think Joe killed the doggy???) Filmbufftim on FB.