One-man crusade against corruption
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (15, 90 mins)
BASED on Jonathan Ames’ novella of the same title, You Were Never Really Here is a brutal and unflinching revenge thriller, which allows writer-director Lynne Ramsay to plumb the murky depths of the human condition on the mean streets of modernday New York.
She conjures a nightmarish vision of exploitation and degradation behind closed doors that has us biting our nails down to the cuticles.
Traumatised war veteran Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) cares for his ailing mother (Judith Roberts) in his childhood home.
By day, he wrestles with an addiction to painkillers and dulls memories of the people he couldn’t save during his time working for the FBI by asphyxiating himself with plastic bags in his bedroom.
By night, Joe accepts hit-man assignments from associate John McCleary (John Doman) to purge the city of corruption, evil and injustice.
Joe accepts a meeting with Senator Albert Votto (Alex Manette), whose teenage daughter Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov) is missing.
The politician has received a tip-off by text that his beautiful girl is a sex slave in a brothel located in the Kips Bay neighbourhood of Manhattan.
Votto is reluctant to involve the police because he is in the throes of an election campaign and any negative publicity could hurt him at the ballot box.
He offers Joe a large sum of money to rescue Nina and dole out suitable punishment to the brothel-owners and clientele.
“I want you to hurt them,” snarls Votto.
“If she’s there, I’ll get her,” promises Joe, who heads to the nearest hardware store to purchase a 16oz ball-peen hammer and duct tape.
You Were Never Really Here is a masterclass in tightly coiled suspense.
Phoenix delivers a fearless and, at times, heartbreaking performance as a broken man, whose quest for redemption seems to be leading him down the road to hell.
Ramsay captures her protagonist’s nightmarish and woozy odyssey in a clinical, unfussy manner that sends trickles of cold sweat down the viewer’s spine.