You Were Never Really Here
Amazon Studios | Release Date: April 6, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
84
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critics
Positive:
38
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TimeStephanie ZacharekApr 12, 2018
Disquieting and skillfully crafted thriller. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 12, 2018
Set against the high-tension strings and jarringly funky synthesizers of Greenwood’s score, the film is transformative and transfixing. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerApr 11, 2018
If Ramsay's 2011 melancholy masterpiece "We Need to Talk About Kevin" was about the consequences of caring too little, You Were Never Really Here is its polar opposite – a story of a man who cares so much that his soul is bleeding out of every pore. Read full review
100
Consequence of SoundDominick Suzanne-MayerApr 9, 2018
You Were Never Really Here is a masterpiece of form and performance, but somehow, its accomplishments in sound and aural texture manage to dwarf even those other accolades. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensApr 6, 2018
Ramsay’s fourth feature operates on the viewer in much the same way. With a minimum of resources, she creates a primal atmosphere of dread, then assaults the viewer’s consciousness in a single, sharp blow. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyApr 6, 2018
Based on Jonathan Ames' novella of the same name, the film is rooted so firmly in Joe's point of view he sometimes is absent from the screen entirely. We're inside his head. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangApr 5, 2018
There is more to admire here than a simple economy of form and content, and the spareness of Ramsay's approach is no mere approximation of Ames' hard-boiled prose. The texture is as gritty as the filmmaking is exquisite. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMay 31, 2017
A transcendent, at times almost dangerous film. Read full review
100
The Film StageGiovanni Marchini CamiaMay 27, 2017
On the level of montage, You Were Never Really Here is an expressionistic tour de force. Read full review
100
Screen InternationalAllan HunterMay 27, 2017
Ramsay elevates the material way beyond the conventional by sheer filmmaking craft. Read full review
100
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 27, 2017
Ramsay has made more sensually rapturous films, but this may be her most formally exacting: No shot or cut here is idle or extraneous. Read full review
100
The PlaylistJessica KiangMay 27, 2017
The entire, whippet-lean film feels like an experiment in impressionist condensation, as though Ramsay is testing the limits of how little she can give us, and how weird it can be, while still delivering a recognisable revenge thriller. Read full review
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 27, 2017
It’s not an experience to relish, exactly, but it’s still one that’s fully capable of blowing you away. Read full review
100
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 27, 2017
Over the years, Phoenix has given us some of the most memorable portraits of dark flawed men from Commodus to Johnny Cash. Here, he is excellent, utterly convincing as a man who has been hammered by the world and so has decided to hammer it back. Read full review
95
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpApr 5, 2018
Each of her previous movies captures human collapse in slow motion. You Were Never Really Here is a breakdown shot in hyperdrive, lean, economic, utterly ruthless and made with fiery craftsmanship. Let this be the language we use to characterize her reputation as one of the best filmmakers working today. Read full review
92
IGNWilliam BibbianiApr 3, 2018
This is a film about pain, and it forces the audience to live in and work through that pain. And it’s absolutely worth the effort. By the end it’s a transformative experience. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 2, 2018
For all the influences glowing dimly under its skin, You Were Never Really Here remains its own bewildering animal, unmistakably Ramsay’s. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 12, 2018
Joaquin Phoenix has never been shy about going big if the role called for it — and maybe even if the role didn’t necessarily call for it — but his performance here ranks as one of his best because of what happens between the outbursts. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 12, 2018
The story lurches forward in spasms. We’re fully in the head space of a messed-up, hollowed-out psyche. Backed by Jonny Greenwood’s sinister wash of a musical score, You Were Never Really Here feels like a waking nightmare. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 11, 2018
It is violent, sad, tender, and alive, and it is as assured a piece of moviemaking as you’ll ever see. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 4, 2018
Joaquin Phoenix is simply stupendous in You Were Never Really Here. His performance is damn near flammable — dangerous if you get too close. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 12, 2018
It’s a really good film, but it’s certainly not an easy one to watch. Read full review
80
VoxTodd VanDerWerffApr 11, 2018
You Were Never Really Here hints at the extent of the horrors Joe suffered, but it never tells you directly about them, which is one of its strengths. Read full review
80
Time OutGeoff AndrewApr 9, 2018
Coming after her uneven "We Need to Talk About Kevin," Ramsay’s latest — a complete return to form — reminds us of a hugely audacious and imaginative talent, one that only needs to find the right material to glitter, darkly. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerMar 12, 2018
Dark, disturbing and difficult, this is a deep dive into a troubled headspace and never lets you leave. Ramsay is now four for four, one of our most exciting filmmakers. If she could not leave it so long next time, that’s just fine with us. Read full review
80
Total FilmJordan FarleyMar 5, 2018
Lynne Ramsay returns with a scuzzy, stripped-back thriller focused on the man, rather than the mission. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 27, 2017
It is a movie which teeters perpetually on the verge of hallucination, with hideous images and horrible moments looming suddenly through the fog; its movement is largely inward and downward, into a swamp of suppressed abuse memories which are never entirely pieced together or understood – even as the sickeningly violent action continues. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 4, 2018
It’s a compact, perfect performance in a tight, tense genre picture that manages just enough twists and surprises to separate it from the hired-killer-movie pack. Read full review
75
TheWrapBen CrollApr 6, 2018
For all of its meticulous construction and often masterful craft, the film remains something to coldly admire rather than easily embrace, often playing more as a collection of accomplished filmmaking moments than as a fully enthralling whole. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartApr 4, 2018
The Scottish director’s short, blunt thriller is so violently nerve-jangling that it feels like a stretch to recommend it, exactly. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyApr 11, 2018
You Were Never Really Here isn’t an entirely satisfying experience, and may benefit from multiple viewings, but it’s still a masterful exploration of the nasty ways repressed trauma can resurface, and how violence can become a means of excising the bruises of the past. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 9, 2018
Some strains of this fearsome film, to be honest, feel overworked and arch. When Joe finds his white-haired mother sitting in front of the TV, for example, does it have to be showing “Psycho”? Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 4, 2018
The gravity and force of Mr. Phoenix’s performance and Ms. Ramsay’s direction are impressive, but it’s hard not to feel that their talents have been misapplied, and that there is less to the movie than meets the eye. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaMay 27, 2017
Cinematically, it’s undeniably gripping, a tightly wound contraption of nervous energy, grief, and gore. But it’s in service of a story that’s been told countless times before, and it’s not clear where Ramsay’s usually singular point of view is in play. Read full review
68
The AtlanticChristopher OrrApr 19, 2018
You Were Never Really Here feels remote and somnambulant—a bad dream viewers know will end after 90 minutes, never to disquiet them again. Its emotional stakes are inflated so overzealously that they scarcely register as stakes at all. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnMay 27, 2017
It’s an enticing challenge for the writer-director to develop a stylish mood piece out this flimsy material, adapted from a Jonathan Ames novella as a series of textured moments. The movie is an elegant homage to a mold of scrappy detective stories that often collapses into a concise pileup of stylish possibilities. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonApr 11, 2018
It’s not very deeply felt. Phoenix gives his all, but Ramsay plops us down in the middle of Joe’s breakdown, before we can get our emotional bearings. We figure out who he was — abused child, traumatized soldier – before we get a sense of who he is. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineGreg CwikApr 3, 2018
Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here could be considered artsy exploitation, a film whose formal dexterity belies its debts to its chosen, and quite squalid, genre. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinMay 27, 2017
This intoxicatingly stylish work is all over the place, a hot mess at times so ravishing it sends shivers down to the toes. Unfortunately, it’s also at times just plain crass and silly. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 12, 2018
The result is like any other Lynne Ramsay movie, whether it’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” or “Ratcatcher” — slow, soporific and, here and there, wonderful. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 11, 2018
As beautiful and compelling as Ramsay’s filmmaking and Phoenix’s central performance are, the degree to which viewers will buy You Were Never Really Here depends on the degree to which they accept yet another display of febrile vigilante brutality motivated by sexual violence perpetrated against young girls. One person’s trope, after all, is another’s shopworn cliche. Read full review
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