You were never really here

DIRECTED BY-:
Lynne Ramsay
STARRING-:
Joaquin Phoenix
Judith Roberts
Ekaterina Samsonov
YEAR OF RELEASE-:
2017
PREMISE-:
A traumatized 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.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE NEGATIVES-:

• The overarching problem that bothered me the most was the deliberate weakening of the threat level of the situations and the villains in order to make Joe look extremely ‘’brutal’’ and ‘’professional’’ by comparison. Throughout the film, Joe is able to survive almost ALL of the supposed ‘’dangerous’’ situations NOT through his own intelligence and skills, but through numerous illogicalities and conveniences in the plot (I’ll be elaborating later).

• In a world FULL of guns, especially in the world of SEX TRAFFICKING, a HAMMER came across as a really baffling choice of weapon to me (Not from a character standpoint, but on a pure PLOT level). I mean, Joe’s success rate on EVERY mission ALMOST ALWAYS relies on the enemies being VERY LOW in number AND not having ANY guns in their proximity. 

JOE RESCUES NINA

• An errand boy is COINCIDENTALLY running an errand the SAME night Joe arrives to rescue Nina. Why isn’t he made to run the errands during the DAY,  when there would be no suspicious activities going inside the house? 

• Why does the errand boy know the entry code of the house? Why isn’t he ordered to just ring the doorbell and give his deliveries to the bodyguards? Doesn’t him knowing the entry code pose a massive security threat?

• For a house which acts as a hub of SEX TRAFFICKING (secretly run by THE GOVERNOR OF THE CITY, by the way), there are somehow ONLY TWO GUARDS present as security. These two guards are also CONVENIENTLY and STUPIDLY spaced out so much that they can’t hear what is happening to each other. These guards also CONVENIENTLY seem to not have ANY firearms whatsoever.  

JOE AND NINA GET SEPARATED

• Joe and Nina get to know about Votto’s death JUST BEFORE the police officers knock on their doors.

• THE GOVERNOR OF THE CITY conveniently sends ONLY TWO cops to take away Nina and kill Joe. 

• The cops sent by the governor to retrieve Nina and execute Joe somehow turn out to be the dumbest people alive. Instead of killing Joe or even RESTRAINING him THE SECOND they enter the room, one cop takes Nina away while the other idles around and STUPIDLY points his gun VERY CLOSE to Joe’s face, giving Joe a convenient opportunity to dodge and attack. 

• During his fight with the police officer, Joe LUCKILY gets a MINOR injury on his face which CONVENIENTLY NEVER affects his abilities to fight or acts as a hinderance to his plans and actions.

• After the attack in the hotel, Joe goes to McLeary’s house and finds that he is absent. But, he notices some blood drops on the floor suggesting a possible struggle / conflict. Joe then searches the house and takes McLeary’s gun (which proves to be REALLY handy later when he has to kill the agents who killed his mom). He then heads to McLeary’s office only to find him dead, after seemingly been tortured for information. The following are the problems with these events-:

1. Why didn’t Governor Williams’ agents torture McLeary for information at his HOUSE? Wouldn’t it have been way more convenient and inconspicuous? Why did they have to drag him all the way to his office where there would be A LOT of witnesses? 
2. Why didn’t THE GOVERNOR OF THE CITY permanently station his agents at the three MAIN locations (McLeary’s house, McLeary’s Office, and Joe’s own house) where Joe was MOST likely to go? Wouldn’t this SIGNIFICANTLY increase the chances of executing Joe? Why did they instead keep hopping from one place to another, CONVENIENTLY and STUPIDLY giving Joe enough opportunities to gather information and resources? If EITHER of the above COMMON SENSICAL ideas had been implemented by the supposed MASTERMIND OF A SEX TRAFFICKING RACKET, then Joe wouldn’t have been able to get a gun and the ENTIRE third act wouldn’t have happened.

JOE RETURNS TO HIS HOME

• THE GOVERNOR OF THE CITY, once AGAIN, VERY STUPIDLY, sends only TWO agents to kill Joe. 

• The two agents STUPIDLY patrol ONLY the downstairs part of the house, giving Joe a very convenient chance to not only discover his mother’s dead body but also get the drop on the agents themselves.

THE CLIMAX

• Why did the governor wait so many days to go to his country home? Shouldn’t he have done this IMMEDIATELY after the senator’s death in order to secure a strong alibi? 

• The governor CONVENIENTLY leaves for his country home AFTER Joe’s done with the water burial. I mean if the governor had left even ONE DAY before, Joe wouldn’t have been able to follow him.

• The GOVERNOR OF THE CITY, who’s also a PEDOPHILE and the HEAD of a SEX TRAFFICKING racket, INEXPLICABLY keeps ONLY TWO guards as security. These two guards are also conveniently present VERY far from each other. There can be only one justification for this idiotic decision, which, given the events that happen in the film, falls apart instantly.

THE JUSTIFICATION-:

The governor doesn’t feel that there is a threat to his life.

THE STUPIDITY-: 

Did the governor not bother to check the status of the two agents he sent to kill Joe? 

• If YES, he did check, then shouldn’t he be aware of the IMMENSE THREAT that Joe poses?
• If NO, he didn’t bother to check, then we unfortunately run into some more problems-:

1. The antagonist of the film is made EXTREMELY STUPID for the sake of the plot.
2. Did the governor’s subordinates, through which he executed these shady plans, ALSO not bother to check? Isn’t it really convenient that NO ONE in his ENTIRE shady organization bothered to confirm the elimination of one of their MOST crucial loose threads?  

• Joe kills the guard present at the front gate and in the next shot we see Joe entering the governor's house, with the front gate wide open behind him. There are four possibilities as to how Joe was able to get past the front gate. Each of which are heavily flawed -:

POSSIBILITY 1 -:

Joe tortured the guard to open the gate for him. 

THE STUPIDITY-:

There are NO signs of torture on the guard. We’re just shown one small head wound, presumably from the blow of the hammer. 

POSSIBILITY 2 -:

Joe climbed over the gate. 

THE STUPIDITY-:

Even IF he was able to climb over the gate, we’re still shown a WIDE OPEN gate in the next shot. HOW and WHY did this happen? Did Joe open the gate from inside AFTER getting in? HOW and WHY would he do that?

POSSIBILITY 3 -:

Joe opened the gate by sheer force. 

THE STUPIDITY-:

Why is there no alarm system embedded for the FRONT GATE of THE GOVERNOR’S house?

POSSIBILITY 4 -:

The gate was open all along. 

THE STUPIDITY-:

That is just IMMENSELY CONVENIENT and INCREDIBLY STUPID on the governor’s part.

• In the next scene we see Joe making his way through the house and searching for Nina after having killed the guard in the kitchen. But we’re never shown HOW IN THE WORLD was Joe able to get to the kitchen AND get a drop on the guard WITHOUT setting off any alarms OR drawing the attention of the guard himself.

• HOW was Nina able to sneak the razor into the governor's bedroom?

THE POSITIVES-:

• The performances were all very good.
• The characterization of the protagonist was decent.
• The cinematography and camera-work were good.
• The soundtrack was very groovy and was used appropriately. 

RATING -: 5/10