You Were Never Really Here

Silly (no) story with unrealistic archaic violence garnished with (wet dreams of) Lolita moments. Would be impossible to deliver in 2025.

Weak story, all over the place, the movie lacks focus. It's an unbelievable Hollywood story posing as an artsy movie. It delivers on neither of those two aspects. At the end I couldn't wait for it to finish, and when it did I was in remorse over the time spent watching it.

A self-consciously artsy film in which the contrivance and the directorial showing off take precedence over everything else. It made me yearn for a movie that actually tells a straightforward story and doesn't try impress me with a bunch of unnecessary embellishment.

The narrative could've used a lot more clarification - certain plot points don't make sense or are vague. The whole political aspect - The Governor vs The senator is really underdeveloped and those characters not properly explored. There's a scene between Joe and one of the corrupt officers in his kitchen where it's hard to hear the dialogue and hard to understand why Joaquin Phoenix's character acts the way he does in that scene. Really good work from Joaquin Phoenix, good direction by Lynne Ramsey... Cinematography, pacing, score. All good.

What even was this it was so bad who cares

Hey, professional film critics! Moody + edgy does NOT equal good.

All I kept thinking throughout the movie was, WTF am I watching? The sort of weird, art house movie that people who think they are artistic and brilliant will rave about but the everyday person will just think it’s bizarre and wonder why they just wasted 1 1/2 hours of their life on it.

Modern, edgier arthouse venture on “Taxi Driver”, circumstantially leveling on staked personal involvement with questionable decisions amidst unique cinematic form and incalculable expectations, led by Joaquin Phoenix’s raw, violently embraced conviction as the soulful ticking. (B+)

Loved the movie. Hated the music.

There's so much to appreciate about this film. Well written. Well shot. Great acting. Great directing. Can we have a few more films like this please?