You Were Never Really Here (2018)

What makes it different from others?

Very Cool!!!

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This move could be so much more. Buts it is not. I was waiting for the escalation that never came. It has so many unneeded scenes and it was so slow that I though it was 4 hours long. Phoenix was really good for this role but the movie in total was boring and leaves you with so many questions and wanting to see more action and explanations.

Boring to the 10th degree. Mr. Phoenix needs an intervention. He made this movie when he was 41 yet he looks like a fat grandfather. His non-stop mumbling didn't help either, subtitles should have been used when he talked. A mercenary who uses a hammer? WTF? The Lolita-esqe relationship he had with the girl was quite repulsive as well. This movie was appallingly bad and even with its short running time, it seemed to drone on. This joker is playing the Joker? As Nell Carter once said, "Gimme a break."

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningJoe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a former war veteran, tormented by nightmarish visions of a past he's struggling to come to terms with. Lacking any real direction in his life, he's offered a shot at redemption when the ambitious Senator Albert Votto (Alex Manette) hires him to track down his missing daughter who's been dragged into the sex trade. However, despite accomplishing his mission, he finds himself plunged into a deadly game of revenge that plunges his already fragile mind over the edge.In a Hollywood landscape still recovering from the recession, we still find ourselves bombarded with 'franchise' movies dominating the multiplexes, either long dormant or presently in the cultural consciousness, a safe bet of making a box office return that justifies the budget. We still find more abstract, independent works being shuffled to the side lines, as seems to be the case with this effort from writer/director Lynne Ramsay, a dark, moody effort with little in the way of humour, and a central plot with plenty of potential that sadly never really engages you the way it should.In the lead role and truthfully as the only character of any real substance, Phoenix fits the role perfectly, gruff and stone faced, and looking like he's put on a few pounds and could do with hitting the gym, and indeed it's a dark, brutal thriller he inhabits, as is the case these days, brutal and pulling no punches, with some graphic, unflinching violence typical of modern cinema. It's trying to stand out as a film by being deeper and more pseudo-intellectual than your average thriller, and in doing so drowns itself in an arthouse vibe that ends up leaving you further absconded.It's too well made and intriguing to be a waste of time, but Ramsay leaves it all too ambiguous and uninvolving to really do it justice. ***

Enjoyed this movie although it's a bit hard to follow. A step into insanity amidst corruption and crimes unspeakable. Phoenix is his usual brilliant self.