You Were Never Really Here

An authorial existential neo-noir, dubbed the "Taxi Driver of the 21st century," in which the hardened mercenary Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) must rescue a senator's underage daughter from the clutches of certain perverts. Despite traumatic flashbacks (like Robert De Niro's character, he is also a war veteran), armed with duct tape and a hammer, the elusive Joe embarks on a meditative odyssey.

Reflection and understanding of the cinematic language of broken childhoods traumatized by their past is the sole theme of Lynne Ramsay's work ("We Need to Talk About Kevin"). The character played by Phoenix carries the same childhood trauma—searing memories of his father beating his mother to death, while in the present, he engages in dirty work, going in with a hammer instead of a gun. In this role, Phoenix portrayed a concentrated bundle of pain, a disaster of a man, a disintegrating superhero on pills, who pieces himself back together every day.

 The music for the film was composed by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead.

 Two awards at the Cannes Film Festival: Best Screenplay (Lynne Ramsay) and Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix).