Written by: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman, Alex Manette
Rating: [4/5]
Abuse and its painful cycles have the power to never leave those who experience it which makes life difficult to navigate. A combination of guilt, pain, and recovery from the trauma they have experienced comes across in different ways for those who had to undergo those terrible circumstances. Capturing that through a feature film comes as no small task, but You Were Never Really Here truly does so in a unique manner and one that ensures it will not let you forget.
Still dealing with the aftereffects of the physical abuse he experienced and witnessed as a child, Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) applies his trade as a hired hand to rescue girls who have been sex trafficked. He works through a handler and keeps connections to a minimum but when he gets hired to rescue the daughter of a Senator named Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov) he gets himself into a situation with more occurring under the surface.
Stories navigating in this arena certainly have to take some caution in the manner it depicts. A level of sensitivity becomes paramount to getting it right, which we certainly receive in You Were Never Really Here as it processes Joe’s trauma and the constant suicidal thoughts he harbors in addition to the work he does. Therefore this feature hinges on what it displays but also what it specifically does not and with that comes some power and the drastic impact it has on our perception of what occurs here.
Joe approaches his noble work of getting young girls out of sex trafficking circles as a sense of duty but also a burden in a way. He certainly does not operate as a vigilante doing this out of the pure goodness of his soul but rather when he receives a payday for it. When he receives the assignment he caters to his client’s wishes on the level of brutality they want him to show the perpetrators and he has no issue getting quite violent with them, rightfully. His weapon of choice as evidenced in the feature happens to be a hammer, which carries more significance than meets the eye when getting flashbacks to his past but this film decides to take quite the approach in how it displays violence making it unique.
Typically films of this sort like to display the violence on display and I can understand why. If you have someone taking out individuals partaking in sex trafficking, they deserve a painful way out, but instead of showing in detail how Joe splits their head open with a hammer, we get cuts to slightly after each kill occurs and exhibit Joe standing over or walking away from the body. A bold choice and one helped on by the spectacular editing by Joe Bini displays how presenting the aftermath carries just as much power if not more than watching it all tanspire. It has the same impact without going into the gratuitous nature of what the visualization would indicate. This happens with both the violence but it also refrains from showing anything heinous regarding the sexual violence towards these girls. Lynne Ramsay attacks this material with a purpose and distinguishing between what she elects to show the audience carries great power and something allowing this film to stand out.
Interspliced between these jobs to rescue these girls we have moments of Joe just barely keeping it together emotionally, which gives Joaquin Phoenix the avenue to make this characters. From the flashbacks to the instances where he performs elements of self-harm, Phoenix captures a deep sadness lingering through Joe as he continues to wrestle with the trauma of the abuse he and his mother experienced from his father. These moments appear suddenly on screen for us just as we can surmise occur for Joe taking us right into his headspace. Every day Joe fights to find a will to live and the visualization of this struggle certainly gets helped by what Phoenix does with this character.
Having to wait so long between Lynne Ramsay’s projects feels like a punishment we do not deserve because when she steps up to the plate she delivers something you will never forget and You Were Never Really Here certainly fits the bill. Dark, bleak, and to the point, this feature takes away any of the frills and drama this story might entertain and instead approaches it through this methodical lens where it presents this story in a matter-of-fact manner that still carries incredible power. Joe fights for reasons to live and this bout to save Nina from these horrific men at the very least provides some semblance of a respite from the harmful thoughts banging on in his head. Everything fully comes together in a final scene that will shock but also puts a nice bow on the entire experience that speaks to the greatness we see before us in this film. A tremendous effort by all involved.
Films with Josh 
