You Were Never Really Here

Director: Lynne Ramsay

2017 / 89min / DCP

Elliptical, evasive, ingenious in how it deviously ratchets up tension through withholding information, and unrelenting in its sense of queasily mounting anxiety—the fraught soundscapes designed by Jonny Greenwood deserve no small credit here—Ramsay’s tightly wound, at-times absolutely terrifying film stars Joaquin Phoenix as “Joe,” a mercenary hired to bring back the kidnapped underage daughter (Ekaterina Samsonov) of a state senator and inflict maximum damage on the responsible parties as he does so. “Ramsay’s film is not about people; instead it uses them and their bodies to explore American systems of power, and the abuse that develops within. The political, monetary, and sexual forces that cause people to act are on display here, as are the physical consequences of said actions, with all emotion and psychology removed.” —Film Comment

Distributor: Amazon Studios