After taking 2017 off, Joaquin Phoenix is back in a big way in 2018.
The three-time Academy Award nominee (it seems impossible he’s never won an Oscar, and yet) stars in four movies this year: biblical drama Mary Magdalene (he plays Jesus), Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, the John-C.-Reilly-plays-his-hitman-brother dark comedy The Sisters Brothers, and the bloody and brutal You Were Never Really Here.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk about Kevin), the thriller stars Phoenix as a Gulf War veteran with PTSD-turned hit man who gets hired by a senator to rescue his missing daughter from a child sex ring. You Were Never Really Here was a hit at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay (for Ramsay) and Best Actor. You thought Logan, which was also about a grizzled middle-aged man and a young girl kicking butt, was dark? Wait until Johnny Cash bashes a bunch of perverts’ heads in with a hammer.
Here’s the official logline.
A traumatized veteran, unafraid of violence, tracks down missing girls for a living. When a job spins out of control, Joe’s nightmares overtake him as a conspiracy is uncovered leading to what may be his death trip or his awakening.
You Were Never Really Here opens on April 6.
