---
title: "You Were Never Really Here: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/you-were-never-really-here/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/you-were-never-really-here"
critics_score: 79
critics_reviews: 29
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# You Were Never Really Here (2017): what the critics said

Critics' score 79 from 29 reviews: 24 positive, 3 mixed, 2 negative.

Most critics respond strongly to Lynne Ramsay’s brutal, stripped-back thriller, with praise centred on Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as a traumatised hitman. The reviews repeatedly credit his physical presence and inward distress with giving the violence an emotional weight, while Ramsay’s fragmented storytelling keeps attention on his damaged inner life rather than the mechanics of his assignment. Sound design, expressive cinematography and Jonny Greenwood’s score also draw praise for making that distress immediate and unsettling.

The spread is wide despite the firmly positive majority, and the chief disagreement concerns whether the film’s omissions deepen its portrait or keep its characters too distant. Film Comment finds that the elliptical storytelling makes the film feel more concerned with its own structure than with people; Slant Magazine finds the flourishes ponderous and the effect fleeting. Even some favourable reviews acknowledge vagueness, familiar plotting or a lack of emotional pull beneath the assured craft.

## Little White Lies — Hannah Strong

Rating 4/5/5. 7 March 2018. 

Ramsay delivers a brutal masterclass in sensory overload that is unequivocally worth the wait. The critic singles out the lean, visceral character study of Phoenix's traumatised hitman and the amplified colour and sound design.

[Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/you-were-never-really-here)

## The Telegraph

Rating 5/5. 27 May 2017. Festival review. 

Lynne Ramsay’s feel-bad vigilante thriller drop-kicks the viewer into a cosmos of pain and depravity with only faint flickers of light. It is a sustained masterclass in implying violence without lingering, anchored by Joaquin Phoenix’s gruellingly subtle performance and insidious sound design.

[Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2017/05/27/cannes-2017-never-really-review-experience-fully-capable-blowing/)

## The Times — Kevin Maher

Rating ★★★★★. 9 March 2018. 

Lynne Ramsay’s story of a tortured paedophile catcher uses familiar revenge-movie ideas as building blocks towards something far more disturbing: existential terror. It is original and utterly thrilling, driven by a central performance as bruised and bloody as sirloin.

[Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/film-review-you-were-never-really-here-wz9b2pzlh)

## Sight and Sound — Kate Stables

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 March 2018. 

The critic praises Ramsay's lean, intense avenger noir as a stunning reimagining of genre, with its impressionistic style and cryptic flashbacks. Phoenix's performance as the haunted protagonist is singled out as brilliantly brutal and empathetic.

[Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/you-were-never-really-here-review-lynne-ramsay-makes-pointillist-poetry-from-hard-boiled-brutalism)

## The AV Club — A.A. Dowd

Rating A-. 6 April 2018. 

Phoenix delivers a fearsome, physically transformed performance as a damaged veteran enforcer in this fragmentary, ferociously beautiful film. Ramsay twists the source material into a spooky haiku of carnage with electrifying unconventional vantages on the mayhem and a haunting distortion of noir themes.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/joaquin-phoenix-is-a-human-wrecking-ball-in-lynne-ramsa-1825053975)

## The Guardian

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 March 2018. 

Lynne Ramsay’s elliptical portrait of a traumatised hitman is a head-spinningly accomplished work that reconfirms her as one of the most thrillingly distinctive film-makers. The focus on the protagonist’s fractured psyche, granular cinematography and immersive sound design create an overwhelming experience of pure cinema.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/11/you-were-never-really-here-review-lynne-ramsay-joaquin-phoenix)

## Empire — Ian Freer

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 6 March 2018. 

Ramsay offers an unflinching stare into a tottering male psyche with singularity of voice and stunning control of form. Phoenix shoulders the emotional complexity perfectly in a dark, disturbing and difficult deep dive that is mightily impressive.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/never-really-review/)

## Screen Daily

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 2017. Festival review. 

Ramsay's blistering fourth feature is a brutal 21st-century Taxi Driver elevated by masterful filmmaking craft and an awards-worthy Phoenix performance. The critic praises the visionary direction and handling of adult, violent material.

[Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/you-were-never-really-here-cannes-review/5118556.article)

## Los Angeles Times — Justin Chang

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 April 2018. 

Praises the hypnotic grimness, Phoenix's riveting performance, Ramsay's elliptical style and exquisite filmmaking, calling it haunting and hard-to-shake.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-you-were-never-really-here-review-20180405-story.html)

## The i Paper — Matthew Turner

Rating ★★★★. 9 March 2018. 

The critic calls the film a brutal and intense psychological thriller that marks a departure for Ramsay. Phoenix delivers a brilliant, intensely internalised performance informed by PTSD, while Ramsay's inventive direction finds unusual ways to depict violence and gets inside the character's head.

[Read the review](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/you-were-never-really-here-review-lynne-ramsay-133505)

## Time Out — Geoff Andrew

Rating 4/5. 26 May 2017. 

Ramsay is back on top form with a vengeance in this impressionistic, enigmatic thriller focused on the inner life of Phoenix's taciturn hitman. The assured execution, expressive cinematography, and underlying compassion are highlighted amid the violence.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/you-were-never-really-here)

## Total Film — Jordan Farley

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 March 2018. 

Ramsay returns with a scuzzy, stripped-back thriller focused on the man rather than the mission. Phoenix stuns with a traumatically internal performance and Ramsay's unwavering vision reaffirms her as one of our greatest living filmmakers.

[Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/you-were-never-really-here-review/)

## Financial Times — Nigel Andrews

Rating ★★★★☆. 7 March 2018. 

Lynne Ramsay’s film is a powerfully nihilistic bad trip that starts at spiritual ground zero and drills down through a traumatised hit-man’s world of inner doom. By the end despair has doubled back to cue a kind of redemption, even in a world still damned.

[Read the review](https://www.ft.com/content/7359d238-21fe-11e8-9a70-08f715791301)

## Radio Times — Stephen Carty

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 

This brutal, unconventional thriller avoids clichés with minimal dialogue and off-screen violence shown in unusual ways. Phoenix gives an excellent performance as the haunted protagonist, making the film intense and unsettling despite some vagueness.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-zo34qq/you-were-never-really-here/)

## The New York Times — A.O. Scott

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 4 April 2018. 

The critic describes the film as a brutal, mood-driven story of a haunted avenger played by Joaquin Phoenix, praising Ramsay's iconoclastic direction over conventional plot.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/movies/you-were-never-really-here-review-joaquin-phoenix.html)

## Vulture

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 5 April 2018. 

The film is cinematically gripping with assured visuals, a tour-de-force raid sequence, and a strong Jonny Greenwood score, but it serves a familiar story without Ramsay’s usual singular poetry or emotional vitality.

[Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/article/you-were-never-really-here-review.html)

## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane

Fi1m's normalised score 60/100 (inferred from the text). 6 April 2018. 

The review portrays it as a savage, hard-going film with intense filmmaking and Phoenix's performance, but notes excess and grimness, finding it fascinating yet difficult.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/you-were-never-really-here-and-a-quiet-place)

## Film Comment — Gina Telaroli

Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 

The film keeps the audience at a remove through its compact, elliptical storytelling and lack of exposition, presenting impressions via images rather than clear narrative. It explores systems of power and abuse but ultimately feels more about its own structure than its characters.

[Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/review-you-were-never-really-here-lynne-ramsay/)

## Slant Magazine — Greg Cwik

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 3 April 2018. 

Ramsay’s minimalist film aspires to transcend genre with fractured storytelling and awry compositions but becomes ponderous rather than profound in its artful flourishes. It is a fleeting mood piece with occasional startling beauty that doesn’t linger despite Phoenix’s performance.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/you-were-never-really-here/)

## The Hollywood Reporter — Leslie Felperin

Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 2017. Festival review. 

The film is an intoxicatingly stylish but uneven blood-soaked tone poem about a hitman hired to save a teenage girl from a child-prostitution ring. It has moments of magic and ravishing imagery but feels crass and silly at times with on-the-nose flashbacks.

[Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/you-were-never-review-1008216/)

## Den of Geek — Don Kaye

Rating 5/5. 6 April 2018. 

Joaquin Phoenix delivers a shattering performance as the damaged anti-hero Joe in this dark tale of paranoia, vengeance, and grief. Ramsay’s stylized approach, with its mix of beauty and violence plus strong sound and score, creates a moving portrait that stands apart from typical vigilante thrillers.

[Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/you-were-never-really-here-review/)

## The Skinny — Joseph Walsh

Rating ★★★★★. 5 March 2018. 

Lynne Ramsay delivers another blistering, daring film that echoes Taxi Driver in its raw, heart-pounding hitman thriller with Joaquin Phoenix. It is a brutal, punishing watch and masterclass in filmmaking, using sparse violence, exceptional sound design, and score to examine suffering without clichés.

[Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/you-were-never-really-here)

## Paste — Andy Crump

Rating 9.5/10. 5 April 2018. 

The critic calls the film arguably Ramsay's masterpiece, a sustained scream that blends violence and tenderness through Phoenix's towering performance and the director's precise, ruthless craftsmanship.

[Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/you-were-never-really-here/you-were-never-really-here)

## The Playlist — Jessica Kiang

Fi1m's normalised score 95/100 (inferred from the text). 26 May 2017. Festival review. 

The critic hails Ramsay's fourth feature as an astounding, prismatic work of pure inventive filmmaking that condenses a revenge thriller into impressionistic slivers of insight. Phoenix delivers a magnetic, nuanced performance, complemented by Greenwood's magnificent score, precise sound design, and striking incidental details that make the film both cruel and compassionate.

[Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/lynne-ramsays-extraordinary-never-really-starring-joaquin-phoenix-jonny-greenwoods-score-20170526/)

## Consequence

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 6 April 2018. 

The critic hails the film as a thunderous achievement and masterpiece of form and performance, praising Ramsay's restraint and visual storytelling alongside Phoenix's haunting, career-highlight turn as a profoundly disturbed man.

[Read the review](https://consequence.net/2018/04/film-review-you-were-never-really-here-is-brutal-hypnotic-and-absolutely-must-see/)

## /Film — Chris Evangelista

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 9 April 2018. 

The critic calls the film one of the best of the year, praising its sparse, less-is-more approach that trusts the audience to fill in blanks and creates a lean, mean machine of a movie. Phoenix's engrossing performance is singled out as a primary strength in this remarkable example of storytelling through omission.

[Read the review](https://www.slashfilm.com/557420/you-were-never-really-here-spoiler-review/)

## The Ringer

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 7 April 2018. 

The critic highlights how the film turns a familiar thriller into something unexpected through Ramsay's virtuoso formal control and Phoenix's performance, emphasizing its lesson in tweaking the familiar.

[Read the review](https://www.theringer.com/2018/04/07/movies/you-were-never-really-here-review)

## Collider — Gregory Ellwood

Rating B. 27 May 2017. Festival review. 

The critic praises Joaquin Phoenix's intense performance as the troubled vigilante but finds the film meandering and that Ramsay falters in the final act, though Phoenix makes it a must-see.

[Read the review](https://collider.com/you-were-never-really-here-review/)

## The Wrap — Ben Croll

Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 6 April 2018. 

The critic finds Lynne Ramsay's elliptical and brutal take on the hard-boiled detective story more interesting for its style and craft than for its substance or emotional pull. They single out the film's jagged editing, Jonny Greenwood score, and inventive set pieces like the scene with the dying man, while noting it plays as a collection of accomplished moments rather than a fully satisfying whole.

[Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/you-were-never-really-here-film-review-joaquin-phoenix-lynne-ramsay/)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/you-were-never-really-here.md