Tag: lynne ramsay

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE – Review

Joaquin Phoenix in Lynne Ramsay’s YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, an Amazon Studios
release. Credit: Alison Cohen Rosa | Amazon Studios

Joaquin Phoenix plays a traumatized veteran who has built a career out of tracking down and saving missing girls, until one job goes very wrong, in the psychological thriller YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

A few years back, a film called WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN turned up in theaters, one of the most disturbing and frightening of films about parenting gone as wrong as possible. The director behind that devastatingly horrifying film was a Scottish writer/director Lynne Ramsay, whose other films are RATCATCHER and MORVEN CALLAR. Ramsay is also the creative force behind YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, which is based on a noir thriller by American writer Jonathan Ames.

Lynne Ramsay is considered, by some, to be one of the world’s greatest living filmmakers. If you were unconvinced of that, this film may change your mind.

If you want to go for disturbing, casting Joaquin Phoenix as the lead is a good start. Joe (Phoenix) is an Iraq War veteran who has carved out a career as a gun-for-hire who rescues young girls for their families, often from child sex traffickers Joe works in the shadows, generally in the in the seedier parts of inner city Cincinnati, where he not only finds and retrieves these girls but punishes the captors.

But Joe himself is a mess, haunted by memories of war and other trauma. He lives a lonely life in a modest old home where he takes care of his elderly, confused mother (Judith Roberts). His kindness and devotion in caring for his sometimes sassy, sometimes playful mother shows a side that contrasts sharply from his brutal work while showing the same careful attention to detail. His obligation for his mother’s care seems to be the only thing that keeps him from going through with his frequent suicide attempts.

Joe getting his assignments from a man named John McCleary (John Doman) but otherwise mostly lives a secretive life apart. But one assignment upends Joe’s settled if violent routine. The assignment starts like any other, to rescue Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), the runaway daughter of a state senator running for higher office, Sen, Albert Votto (Alex Mannette). But after Joe seizes the pre-pubescent, blonde-haired Nina from her captors, everything unravels, sending Joe down an entirely different path.

With a jangling, dissonant score by Jonny Greenwood, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE is unsettling from the start but transforms in unexpected ways as it moves towards its end. Director Ramsay inverts the emotional trajectory of typical action films, skillfully taking us to a resolution that is both different and the same, an emotionally satisfying resolution but one we do not expect.

In many ways, the film suggests the best of film noir, a genre that combines crime and violence with a questing for life’s meaning and human connection. The juxtaposition of the ordinary and brutal is startling in this noir-ish film. Against a backdrop of violence, it is filled with quiet little moments, of visual beauty or fleeting human gestures. The direction is masterful, with every shot beautifully composed and packed with subtext. No moment feels accidental or unnecessary in this film yet we are never conscious of the director’s hand and are swept up in the story’s current.

Joaquin Phoenix is outstanding in this role, one of the best uses of his considerable talent in a long time. It is a more sympathetic part than we usually see the actor in, and a welcome change from again playing the “crazy” character we frequently see him as. Phoenix shines as this complex, troubled character. Joe is a complicated man who is both efficient and skilled in his work and a vulnerable person under his professional veneer. Watching Phoenix as he peels away the layers to reach Joe’s human core is moving and impressive.

The film does have a few minor hiccoughs, primarily that there are a couple of scenes where it is hard to discern the softly-spoken dialog over background sounds that are there to provide important subtext to the scene.

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE is an impressive film, combining all the elements of a dark crime thriller while both transcending and transforming the genre utterly as it transforms its lead character. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE opens Friday, April 20, at the Tivoli Theater.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN – The Review

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN was originally reviewed during the 2011 Stella Artois 20th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival

Imagine yourself as a parent. Now, aside from outliving your own child, imagine the worst thing that could happen. Despite all your best efforts to be a good parent, to raise your child properly, imagine your child does something horrific and unforgivable. Imagine they have done something that turns the entire community against you. Now you are as prepared as you possibly can be for watching WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, from Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, whose previous two feature films are RATCATCHER (1999) and MORVERN CALLAR (2002) and both films are extraordinary. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is the third feature film written and directed by this exciting new cinematic voice. This also happens to be her darkest film, and perhaps her best film to date.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, a worldly free-spirited woman who suddenly finds herself settled down with her husband Franklin, played by John C. Reilly, and having a child. Eva, despite her best efforts to be the mother she’s expected to be, never wanted a child. Still, Eva tries her very best to raise her son right, but from a very early age, there’s something Eva sees in Kevin that sends chills down her spine, something only she sees, while Franklin is fully submersed in the intoxicating drug of fatherhood, blind to the warning signs.

Ramsay constructs this frighteningly all-too-familiar story with a mastery of non-linear progression. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is really Eva’s story, while her son Kevin is the film’s antagonist. This is mother versus son on a level as close to being a horror movie without being a horror movie. Eva has her flaws, both as a mother and as a human being, but Swinton gives her such authentic emotions, such conflicted motives and desires that we can’t help but fully empathize with her. It’s not just her son she must contend with, nor her community after the tragic event, but Eva’s most debilitating struggle is with herself, coping with the guilt of what has happened on her watch as a mother.

Ezra Miller plays Eva’s son Kevin as a teenager, while his various stages of youth are played by other child actors. Most notably frightening as a child is Rock Duer, who plays Kevin as a toddler. A mostly silent role, Rock will creep you out! If THE OMEN had not already been remade, I would count Rock as a shoe-in to play Damien. However, it’s Ezra Miller’s performance that stands out in defining Kevin as the troubled, enigmatic and dangerous teenager.

John C. Reilly is sort of an odd choice for this film. His character is the right fit for his style, goofy and lovable, but it often struggles to fit the dramatic mold setup in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, contrasting with the intensity of Swinton’s performance, but at the same time somewhat saved by Ezra Miller’s ability to shift his character’s diabolical personality with such smoothly polished seams. Regardless, Franklin is a relatively insignificant character to the story, a tool by which to strengthen the mother-son dynamic more than a central focus.

Ramsay has crafted an incredibly dark, terrifying story of the American family, while also engaging the audience is some rather black humor. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of those films that makes you laugh, then immediately feel like you’ve outright sinned for laughing at what’s really a very sad, unfortunate ordeal. The film will likely shock most audiences, hopefully most audiences, but more importantly should bring Lynne Ramsay more to the forefront of American audiences as the next great female filmmaker.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN – SLIFF Review

Imagine yourself as a parent. Now, aside from outliving your own child, imagine the worst thing that could happen. Despite all your best efforts to be a good parent, to raise your child properly, imagine your child does something horrific and unforgivable. Imagine they have done something that turns the entire community against you. Now you are as prepared as you possibly can be for watching WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, from Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, whose previous two feature films are RATCATCHER (1999) and MORVERN CALLAR (2002) and both films are extraordinary. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is the third feature film written and directed by this exciting new cinematic voice. This also happens to be her darkest film, and perhaps her best film to date.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, a worldly free-spirited woman who suddenly finds herself settled down with her husband Franklin, played by John C. Reilly, and having a child. Eva, despite her best efforts to be the mother she’s expected to be, never wanted a child. Still, Eva tries her very best to raise her son right, but from a very early age, there’s something Eva sees in Kevin that sends chills down her spine, something only she sees, while Franklin is fully submersed in the intoxicating drug of fatherhood, blind to the warning signs.

Ramsay constructs this frighteningly all-too-familiar story with a mastery of non-linear progression. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is really Eva’s story, while her son Kevin is the film’s antagonist. This is mother versus son on a level as close to being a horror movie without being a horror movie. Eva has her flaws, both as a mother and as a human being, but Swinton gives her such authentic emotions, such conflicted motives and desires that we can’t help but fully empathize with her. It’s not just her son she must contend with, nor her community after the tragic event, but Eva’s most debilitating struggle is with herself, coping with the guilt of what has happened on her watch as a mother.

Ezra Miller plays Eva’s son Kevin as a teenager, while his various stages of youth are played by other child actors. Most notably frightening as a child is Rock Duer, who plays Kevin as a toddler. A mostly silent role, Rock will creep you out! If THE OMEN had not already been remade, I would count Rock as a shoe-in to play Damien. However, it’s Ezra Miller’s performance that stands out in defining Kevin as the troubled, enigmatic and dangerous teenager.

John C. Reilly is sort of an odd choice for this film. His character is the right fit for his style, goofy and lovable, but it often struggles to fit the dramatic mold setup in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, contrasting with the intensity of Swinton’s performance, but at the same time somewhat saved by Ezra Miller’s ability to shift his character’s diabolical personality with such smoothly polished seams. Regardless, Franklin is a relatively insignificant character to the story, a tool by which to strengthen the mother-son dynamic more than a central focus.

Ramsay has crafted an incredibly dark, terrifying story of the American family, while also engaging the audience is some rather black humor. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of those films that makes you laugh, then immediately feel like you’ve outright sinned for laughing at what’s really a very sad, unfortunate ordeal. The film will likely shock most audiences, hopefully most audiences, but more importantly should bring Lynne Ramsay more to the forefront of American audiences as the next great female filmmaker.

Tilda Swinton Wants to ‘Talk About Kevin’

tilda-swinton

Tilda Swinton has signed on to star in ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin.’   The film, based on the 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver.   The film is being written and is tentatively going to be directed by Lynne Ramsay (‘Ratcatcher’ and ‘Morvern Callar’).

The Hollywood Reporter has this synopsis: “The movie, based on Lionel Shriver’s novel, tells the story of a smart, educated New York mother who does her best to raise a son she never wanted in the first place. He turns out to be extremely difficult and is at the center of the woman’s marital breakdown before going on a killing spree at his high school with a crossbow.”

Filming is scheduled to begin before the end of the year.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter