You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsay's 2017 Best Actor and Best Screenplay Cannes winner was a tightly paced and visually exciting psychological thriller that at a trim 90 minutes left scarcely any room to breathe as nary a scene was wasted and the action and narrative moved effortlessly along, only powered by the wordless, powerful performance of Joaquin Phoenix, Jonny Greenwood's cacophonic yet palpably accelerative score, and, of course, Ramsay's lyrical yet punchy direction and intelligent script that eschewed blatancy for smart subtle ferocity.

If this film remained in the social consciousness this Oscar season, it would definitely be a shoo-in for a number of above-line nominations, but oddly enough, it remained fairly under the radar still.

Ramsay's direction here was superb. She is an epitome of the "show, don't tell", trusting her audience to understand and follow. This film required attention and beautiful subtleties are rewarding. And like her previous phenomenal, and under-watched film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, there was violence in the film, but despite no overt glorification of violence, it remained palpable and viscerally exhilarating and edge-of-seat.

The whole film was mainly wordless after the first act, and kudos to Ramsay, Greenwood and Phoenix for maintaining the tension and narrative propulsion.This was a team at the top of their game.

Essentially, the film had a very straight-forward plot and there was nothing complicated about it, A-to B-to C, but the execution of such simplicity was excellent. And surprisingly enough, despite its simplicity, there were layers not just in terms of Phoenix's character but also thematically. Nothing was wasted.

Phoenix turned in another great performance, not since The Master and Her, and here was a hero with all his troubled past on display, both physically and emotionally, but not verbosely or in your face, but through glimpses of flashbacks and the varied intensity of the brow-furrowing and eye-squinting.

This was really a showcase for Ramsay and Phoenix, and unlike Kevin, or even Nikita  or Taxi Driver, the film's spiritual predecessors, the child actor, Ekaterina Samsonov, did not get as much to do as Ezra Miller, Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster. A Henna-esque Saoirse Ronan would have been perfect.

Greenwood also re-teamed with Ramsay, since Kevin, to score this film and this might actually be better than his Oscar-nominated work on Phantom Thread. An effective score that propelled and complemented the story without being too distracting. Although his score for Paul Thomas Anderson was beautifully suited to that love story, it always felt more like a companion piece rather than, in this case, one with the film.

You Were Never Really Here was a great film, but ultimately, most likely relegated to art-house appeal and may not reach the commercial success that it deserves.