You Were Never Really Here (2018)

With the Oscar's quickly arriving, I had been a little curious about Joaquin Phoenix other performances in films. I have had You Were Never Really Here on my watchlist for quite a while and only recently got around to watching it.

I went into this only knowing the description Amazon Prime gave me which was basic enough. This movie's plot actually surprised me a bit and the entire film is quite beautiful to watch.

As always spoilers are hidden unless you highlight them.

Phoenix plays a mercenary named Joe, who spends his time rescuing missing girls from human traffickers. He gets hired by a politician to find his missing daughter and extract revenge along the way. However, this proves to be difficult as he discovers unnerving secrets along the way.

Many portions of this film have very little dialogue, and the story is progressed through the actions and events. There is lots of focus on the shots in this film, and so much of it is gorgeous to look at; even when the content is bloody or macabre. The mood of the film can be felt through the cinematography. One of the killing scenes is especially unique, being portrayed entirely through security camera footage.

Despite the dark plot, this film isn't too graphic with showing the horrors of human trafficking and instead focuses on Joe, with flashbacks to his childhood, suicide attempts, and past trauma. We get a lot of focus on our main character rather than focusing primarily on action sequences. The only downside is that we don't learn much about the girl he is rescuing minus a few scenes where she speaks.

What I like about the film is that there is a theme of conspiracy in it. Thecorruption by government officials, being involved in this human trafficking operation, I believe could definitely be true in real life. The portrayal is subtle but enough to get the point across which I appreciate.  

The ending scenes of the movie also left an impression on me. When Joe imagines his suicide in the diner, I didn't catch on that he was imagining it. Therefore I was confused for a second, and then sortalaughed at everyone's non-reaction to it. The blood pooling in one shot also looked a bit too thick, like barbecue sauce.   I'm still not sure if that was meant to be intentional or not, considering the diner setting.

Overall, this film is very thought provoking along with being a thriller and it's one that I will likely re-watch.