A Beautiful Day (2017)

A Beautiful Day: Directed by Lynne Ramsay. With Joaquin Phoenix, Dante Pereira-Olson, Larry Canady, Vinicius Damasceno. 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.

“Iu0026#39;m still processing this. The comparisons to u0026quot;Taxi Driveru0026quot; are fair: the performances, the directoru0026#39;s vision and exectution, the understated script….. those are some of the similarities. The major differences, for me include the depth to which the protagonistu0026#39;s trauma is not played out for us to view as observers, but drip-fed in increasing doses, often from a first-person perspective, which in my watching felt more like we were experiencing Joeu0026#39;s trauma with him, rather than seeing it played out for us. The film also has a lot of relevance to current discussions of modern masculinity, and here the gendering of social roles is presented very much more as a question than a statement.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you prefer to finish watching a film with your friends and be able to agree pretty much without discussion on what it was about, then I suspect you might find this film pretentious or light on plot. If youu0026#39;re the type who enjoys discovering what your friends think they just saw, and donu0026#39;t mind spending a lot the movie time watching Joaquin Phoenixu0026#39; face doing some really admirable acting, then this film might be as worthwhile for you as it was for me.”