Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor at Cannes for his role in this thriller from the director of We Need to Talk About Kevin.
"A missing teenage girl. A brutal and tormented enforcer on a rescue mission. Corrupt power and vengeance unleash a storm of violence that may lead to his awakening." (Cannes Film Festival)
Lynne Ramsay is an extraordinary filmmaker. The disjointed, dream-like editing style she uses is reminiscent of Jean-Marc Vallée—only instead of evoking beauty, she creates disturbing screen nightmares. You Were Never Really Here, her latest, upends the classic tale of a hitman with a heart of gold, stripping all romanticism out of it to present an ugly look at broken people doing terrible things to other broken people.
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Trying to keep track of the number of soul-piercing stares in a Joaquin Phoenix performance is like counting the whiskers in his beard: not for the short on time or, due to sheer volume, the sound of mind. Given the actor’s unnerving ability to generate swelling intensity – like a kind of possessed human radiator – and his predilection for playing social misfits, he is a natural fit for the role of a misanthropic hitman.
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You Were Never Really Here is a powerful assault of a film, but it's missing its director's inimitable poetry.
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Ramsay has made more sensually rapturous films, but this may be her most formally exacting: No shot or cut here is idle or extraneous.
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Lynne Ramsay returns with a scuzzy, stripped-back thriller focused on the man, rather than the mission.
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If you're still with the movie after the first ten minutes you're probably with it for the long haul (and possibly for life - it lingers).
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In these staggeringly taut 85 minutes, Ramsay sees a hopeless universe in a jelly bean.
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The ghost of Travis Bickle haunts this nightmarish and humidly absorbing psychological drama from Lynne Ramsay.
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It's spellbinding stuff and Ramsay's sensual style of story-telling is undeniably compelling.
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You Were Never Really Here presents as Ramsay's first genre offering, ramping up the body count and bloodshed, while maintaining her usual focus on unusual characters.
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To watch Phoenix, an actor at the height of his dramatic powers, on screen and under Ramsey's direction makes You Were Never Really Here something of a must-see.
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