Lynne Ramsay’s YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE: the plot of a pulpy action thriller subsumed into a hypnotic meditation on cycles of violence and abuse replicating within the bowels of corrupt patriarchy. A light yet at the end of the labyrinth. Joaquin Phoenix takes the cliche of the assassin looking for redemption and turns his role into a bruisingly honest portrait of trauma and depression, around which glimmers the distant, faded dream of an action movie chasing redemption. Fantastic stuff.
