Last Friday Netflix released Macon Blair's directorial debut I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore, which was one of my most anticipated movies of 2017. It's a quirky revenge thriller about a woman who has had it with our rude, self-centered society, and is pushed to the brink when her house is robbed. When the cops can't help her, she takes things into her own hands to track down the robbers. She enlists her socially-inept neighbor and together they find the robbers, but also realize they may be in way over their heads.
The film stars Melanie Lynskey as the lead, and I just love her! I feel the same exact way as her character, totally disgusted and annoyed at society's self-indulgence and how everyone seems to be an asshole to everyone else. Watching her throughout the film I kept muttering to myself "Same, girl, SAME!" I also really enjoyed her friendship with Elijah Wood's character. It was fun watching their two loner characters work together, and I would love to see another movie featuring their characters.
The story itself has two sides - at the beginning it's kind of a quirky film about the quiet rage Lynskey's character faces, and how she puts up with selfish strangers she is forced to share the planet with (same, girl, SAME!). It's about how she is so isolated from everyone else, because who would want to put themselves out there with all the assholes? After her home is burglarized, she becomes dead-set on making these particular assholes pay for their crime - and that's when the story goes from quirky to impressively violent! It still keeps its humor, but damn do things get brutal!
I thought the shift in tone worked in favor of the film as it echoes life in general - it's all mundane yet comfortable one minute, while the next moment you're in a fight-for-your-life scenario. Writer and director Blair definitely took some cues from Blue Ruin and Green Room writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (Blair starred in Blue Ruin and was in Green Room), and I'm totally okay with that!
I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore speaks to my heart, because sometimes it is hard to feel like you fit in anywhere in this mad world. Sometimes it feels like you are all alone, like the world is out to get you, and that nobody cares for anyone but themselves. The world certainly is full of assholes, but there is also good out there and we need to stand up for what's right.
You can watch I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore streaming on Netflix!
I just watched this this past weekend and I really liked it too! Elijah Wood is an added bonus. I generally don't LOL at movies, but when the guy got hit by the bus, the timing was just so perfect I found it hilarious. Yep, dark humor.
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