You Were Never Really Here

2017 Directed by Lynne Ramsay

Based on true events.

A traumatised veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe's nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.

Joaquin Phoenix Judith Roberts Ekaterina Samsonov John Doman Alex Manette Dante Pereira-Olson Alessandro Nivola Larry Canady Vinicius Damasceno Neo Randall Frank Pando Edward Latham Claire Hsu Denis Ozer Tia-Sophia Begh Lucy Lan Luo Annie Mac-Yang Lilian Tsang Mengqi He Rose De Vera Tian-Lan Chaudhry Ryan Martin Brown Ace Ramsey Silvia Pena Jason Babinsky Jonathan Wilde Ronan Summers Kate Easton Scott Price Show All…

Alternative Titles

유 워 네버 리얼리 히어, A Beautiful Day, Iš tiesų tavęs niekuomet čia nebuvo, 너는 정말 여기에 없었다

thriller drama

89 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★½ 58

This is one of those movies that is teeming with dialogue-free shots and scenes that are supposed to invoke ideas that are key to understanding what the director wants to say. About 15 minutes in, I realized this and spent the rest of the film being upset that I wouldn't understand those ideas unless I watched this movie a second time– and probably even then. About 30 minutes in, I started wondering whose review/article about the movie I'd have to read to really figure out how much I liked it.
I feel this too often with movies lately, and find myself being taken out of them because my mind very quickly slips into the meta-level of not just taking in…
Review by davidehrlich ★★★★ 29

fuuuuckkkk yes.
Lynne Ramsay directing Joaquin Phoenix in a *super* art house TAKEN (complete with POINT BLANK stylings) that's glazed with Jonny Greenwood's best score to date. obviously hacked within an inch of its life but the skeleton is fascinating. i wanted to watch this over from the start as soon as it ended.
Review by Jay ★★★★½ 9

joaquin phoenix whacking paedophiles with a hammer. call it whacking phoenix
Review by Sean Baker 18

Watched at Midtown Art Cinema in Atlanta.
Of course I'm happy I saw this on the big screen but for someone who has a true affinity for genre films, I thought I'd like this alot more. Wish it was more of the RATCATCHER/MOVERN CALLAR Ramsay and less the WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Ramsay.
Really impressed with the cinematography by Thomas Townend, production design by Tim Grimes, editing by Joe Bini and of course the great score by Jonny Greenwood.
Review by Jacob ★★★★★ 11

A radical deconstruction of the action genre and what we've come to expect from our heroes. Fantasy, flashback and reality are all swirled together, a trauma-saturated past manifesting as shard of glass in the soul. The question of "did that really happen?" has never been less important. Ramsay owns this film, particularly in her writing. Phoenix is good, but it's the absolutely impeccable editing that creates his powerful performance. Though there's minimal dialogue, the impressionistic soundscape paired with Jonny Greenwood's pulsating score makes this film feel anything but quiet.
How can a man save anyone else when he cannot save himself?
Rating: 92/100
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½ 4

Joaquin Phoenix doesn’t make a lot of movies. It’s easy to forget about him when he’s not around. Then he shows up in something and you’re like “Oh right he’s basically the best actor in the world.”
Review by Lucy ★★★★★ 16

about as close to perfect as a film can get, i think
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 6

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Was a 72, now an 86
Thoughts after a cathartic second pass:
- Joe taking the stairs when he's in control and then, perhaps unconsciously, deciding on the elevator when the whole situation is fucked is such an acute observational detail, and one of many for this movie.
- Another: the sound-effect of the gas pump being synced to Joe's ticking watch. Each moment and element is finely-tuned - a mechanism subversion of a genre frequently left to sort through viscera and pain.
- The psychic connection between Joe and Nina is quite startling, and it reinforces how Joe's self-loathing is predetermined by the trauma the people around him feel, and how he soaks it in. That Joe starts counting,…
Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 7

lynne ramsay is a god. and that’s all i have to say about that
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★½ 24

47/100
When people who dislike Taxi Driver describe their understanding of it, this is the film they're actually describing. Schrader acknowledges Travis' military service without ever employing it as an excuse; Ramsay serves up jagged flashbacks at key moments to suggest PTSD. Iris' heartbreaking failure to recognize how she's being exploited complicates the story; Nina barely exists here as anything more than a symbol of innocence defiled. Taxi Driver maintains a queasy tension but withholds violence until the horrific climax; You Were Never Really Here plays like said climax turned into its own feature-length badass exercise. Ramsay's formal expertise makes individual sequences (e.g. the security-cam massacre) thrilling, but the movie as a whole feels utterly hollow, especially when it tries…
Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★½ 24

It may not appear so at first glance, but this is a Lynne Ramsay film through and through -- a heart wrenching, hyperviolent addition to her oeuvre of films focusing on the individual's psychological response and post-traumatic path subsequent to their environment's introduction of an unexpected and uncontrollable tragedy. Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and You Were Never Really Here could almost function as an unofficial trilogy dealing with said theme, exploring lonely, singular minds' reactions to larger, more macro-level issues such as the suicide of a loved one, the parenting of a psychopath and the abduction & exploitation of children. Joaquin Phoenix sinks deep into his role of the enigmatic Joe, a war veteran and former member…
Review by Lucy ★★★★★ 8

“it’s okay, joe”
as i’ve been solidifying my 2018 favorites list the past few weeks, this has been at the back of my mind every day. i saw something in it the first viewing, but i didn’t exactly connect. sometimes revisiting something, even something you already love, makes it click. your mood has to be right, and your timing. like things perfectly align so what once felt hazy in comparison is now clear. now i understand, and now i can see. and what i see is beautiful
in my perfect world, lynne ramsay would win best director for this. but she probably won’t, and it’s okay
“it’s okay”

Recent reviews

Review by MattiaBorgo2000 ★★★½

Un film dalle immagini di una bellezza raggelante, incredibili, che tuttavia ha più il sapore di un lungo cortometraggio.
Review by Pedro Henrique ★★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

O filme não se limita à superfície de uma estória genérica de matador de aluguel ganhando empatia pelo "pacote" do contrato, nunca assisti a um filme nessa temática abordado da forma que foi neste filme; Joe lá com seu turbilhão de problemas mentais arrastando sua vida traumatizada exclusivamente porque ainda tinha que cuidar de sua mãe, mostra total falta de empatia perante qualquer um que represente um obstáculo quando se encontra em trabalho, mas, quando coloca em estado terminal o assassino de sua mãe, mostra compaixão, bem como quando se depara com a menina que vive parte do trauma por que ele mesmo passou; e a forma como aborda a questão do que move o ser humano ficou eximia. O…
Review by Miyamoto Melo ★★★

A maior qualidade do filme é a atuação de Joaquin Phoenix que vai desde expressões corporais até pequenas sutilezas no seu olhar perdido e doente. Ponto.

O roteiro é muito genérico, um assassino de aluguel que conhece alguém e as ações de ter salvado essa pessoa vai desencadear dor e sofrimento ao personagem, nada especial. Acho que de certo modo o filme soa pretensioso ao colocar o Joaquin como um personagem muito denso em suas expressões mas ficar só por isso, tem um desperdício enorme em dar mais história e backgroud para o personagem principal.
Review by izzygauyan ★★★

Joaquin phoenix true god of hammers
Review by Michaela Hupman

maybe I’m crazed but I think Joaquin may have reached a new level of attractive to me in this and maybe it’s because I’m about to start my period but this made me very emotional
Review by Micaela ★★★★

He’s so good it’s not even remotely fair.
Review by Oksobasically ★★★★

A brutal movie about PTSD, purpose, and responsibility. Well-shot and well-executed, def worth a watch
Review by Ryan ★★★½

“It’s okay, Joe.”
The notes I’ve liked by other users pretty much sums up how I’m feeling. I really wanted to love this film but I ended up with an “oh, that’s it?”
I believe the film has important messages about fractured states of minds from trauma / PTSD yet I don’t think there was enough leading stones or emotional connection to drive the plot / character forward. I can’t help but also find some uncanny resemblance to Taxi Driver — in the characters and part of its subject matter.
The lack of connection however doesn’t take away from Lynne Ramsay’s brilliant visual storytelling — moments of contemplation and silence amidst a sea of blood and that amazing sequence in…
Review by Os Tamimi ★★

هذا ماتبحث عنه حينما تريد تضييع وقتك دون فائدة، حرفياً الفيلم يقتل المتعة، ويحسسك بعظمة الوقت لسلبه وقتك الثمين، وحتى لو لم يكن ثميناً بنظرك.
أعتقد بأن الفكرة في نظرة المخرج والممثلين وكأنها فكرة عظيمة، يقلدون بها أفلام المخرجين والكتّاب العظماء، أصحاب العقول الفذه، لاتعلم أين الحقيقة من الوهم، لايريدون حتى للمشاهد أن يكتشف ذلك، لاهدف من الفيلم.
بالرغم من قصر وقته إلا أن الفيلم طويل جداً، حتى الأداء كان أقل من المتوسط من كبيرهم لصغيرهم، وأسوأ ممثل بينهم، كان بطلهم "خواكين فينيكس" الذي يفترض به أن يصعد بالفيلم ويجعله كإسمه في الإعلام على الأقل.
Review by Sai Raj ★★★★

Gore but beautiful.
Review by danielle ★★★

i was quite bored but all the music was mesmerizing and the lake scene was elegant
Review by starchild1986 ★★★★

Lynne Ramsay sorgte mit ihrem kontroversen We need to talk about Kevin für einen der beeindruckendsten und meistdiskutierten Filme des vergangenen Jahrzehnts.
Kein Wunder also, dass man bei ihrem Nachfolgewerk genau hinschaut , inwiefern sie die gewachsenen und sicher nicht gerade niedrigen Erwartungen erfüllen würde.
Um es vorwegzunehmen: sie wird diesen mehr als gerecht!
A Beautiful Day (ein Titel könnte kaum weniger das Gezeigte widerspiegeln) ist ein Kunstwerk.
Ramsay inszeniert den Trip in die Schattenwelt von New York als emotionale Tour de Force ihrer Protagonisten und als das Aufeinandertreffen zweier verlorener Seelen, das nach etwas sperrigen Beginn vor allem in der zweiten Filmhälfte eine faszinierende Sogwirkung ausübt.
Das ruhig gefilmte, mit wenigen Dialogen versehene Drama funktioniert über seine gelungene Bildsprache…