The Film (4/5)

    Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) works as a private enforcer for the FBI. His latest mission is to rescue the daughter of a prominent Senator from a sex slavery ring.  However, once the rescue occurs Joe finds himself in a world of conspiracies and loyalties that are not always what they appear.  Joe is also an ex-marine suffering from PTSD, and the trauma of his traumatic childhood, and this has caused him to go down the dark path that he has chosen.

    One would suppose writing a synopsis for a film like You Were Never Really Here would be rather straightforward. What I just wrote doesn't even begin to do the film justice. This film, the fourth by director Lynne Ramsay after We Need to Talk About Kevin, Morvern Callar, and Ratcatcher, channels influences from films as far reaching as The Big Sleep, Oldboy, and Taxi Driver, but is channeled in a much different direction. So while there are noir-ish overtones throughout the piece, this film feels more heavy then a typical film-noir, even of the modern neo-noir variety.

    This film is Joe, and though he is not in every frame of the film, even the one's where he does not appear Joe’s presence can be felt strongly, and thus one would need a performance to match the presence. Fortunately, Joaquin Phoenix was up to that challenge, and delivered what I believe to the finest performance of his career.  Ramsay's direction is quite solid going between natural colors and nice warm tones, and keeping the film a short, dark, brutal, and occasionally surreal 90 minutes.

Audio/Video (5/5)

    Lions Gate presents You Were Never Really Here in a splendid 2:39:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. Everything here looks great, detail is excellent, colors are well reproduced, and blacks levels are accurate.

    Audio is handled by a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track in English. Everything comes through with solid clarity, and no apparent issues.

Extras (0/5)

Nada.

Overall

    I'll admit to have never been a fan of Lynne Ramsay's prior to this film, her last 3 films did nothing for me, but this one was one of the best I have seen this year. The Blu-ray looks and sounds amazing, but has zero extras. RECOMMENDED.