I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE: Tremendously Timely

The other day, I was at the bus stop, and I saw a man put some rubbish on the floor. He didn’t walk away; he stayed there, scrabbling for something in his bag. ‘Okay’, I thought. ‘He’ll probably pick it up when he’s done looking for whatever it is he’s looking for. But what if he doesn’t? Do I have to say anything? Would a pointed glare be enough? What if he starts a fight with me?’ As my mind started to spiral into all the ways this still-hypothetical situation could get out of hand, the man picked up the litter and walked away.

Perhaps this isn’t the best anecdote to illustrate my point, this particular non-event being a result of my neuroses rather than the carelessness of another person. But everyday, we’re besieged with these low-level annoyances that build and build. People putting their bags on the aisle seat of the bus, leaving you having to stand up. People so glued to their phones they end up walking into you. People who walk slowly in the middle of the pavement. Individual instances of these events aren’t anything too troubling. But taken cumulatively, especially after a long day at work, they can become a tidal wave of torments, leading you to despair at the general inconsiderateness of man.

And So, To The Actual Movie…

I tell you, perhaps too much about my day-to-day life as a curmudgeon, to illustrate the instant kinship I felt with Ruth Kimke (Melanie Lynskey) in I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore . Like me, she gets worked up into a rage by the collective ways that people are thoughtless and rude. In her job as a nurse she hears the dying racist rant of an elderly woman, a man at a bar ruins the ending of a book she’s been reading, and people are always letting their dogs relieve themselves on her lawn.

So when she is burgled, and the police admit that they probably aren’t going to do anything about it, she decides to act. Along with Tony (Elijah Wood), a sweet-natured amateur martial artist (who feels bad for letting his dog poop on her lawn), she decides to make it her mission to track down the burglars and get her stuff back. But if she knew the kind of people who had taken it, she may just not have bothered.

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is the directorial debut of Macon Blair, best known for his leading role in Jeremy Saulnier‘s Blue Ruin, a hyper-violent thriller that was one of the standout indie movies of 2013.

Blair‘s film does share similarities with that of his mentor, particularly in terms of its bloody final act. But where I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore transcends the earlier film is in its delicate tonal balance. If I had to put it into one genre, it would be black comedy. But it’s also an action movie, and a thriller, with frequent moments of horror.

The Perfect Odd-Couple

The comedic elements of this film are the most frequent, and these are mainly found in the odd-yet-seemingly-perfect couple of Ruth and Tony. Ruth is very much an everywoman, a female Tom Hanks if you will, but a Tom Hanks who is just thoroughly done with everything. Lynskey plays her progression from meek to full-on-badass with an endearing, goofy verve.

And then there’s Tony. Kindly, rat-tailed, martial artist Tony. At the beginning of the film, he is purely a figure of fun, and not someone Ruth would have chosen to be her only ally, but by the intense final act, Tony has become a vital partner. He’s a human puppy dog; Ruth earns his undying loyalty simply by paying him attention, and he proceeds to do all he can to look after her, though his methods are often unconventional.

There’s a genuine sweetness at the film’s centre that comes from this Ruth/Tony relationship. They are an odd-couple in that they seem mismatched, and they are an odd-couple because, well, they are a couple of odd people, both seeming to not quite fit in with the world as it is right now.

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is a film that often exhibits a bleak worldview. The only hope there is to be found is in the relationship between the two main characters. You’re rooting hard for these two dorks, especially as the film heads into its blood-drenched final act.

That Blood Drenched Final Act

The dramatic tonal shift that comes at the end of this movie works so well because of all that had gone before. It’s to the credit of Blair‘s writing and Lynskey‘s acting that it’s so convincing; the Ruth of the film’s opening scenes would not have been able to go through all she does in the ferocious final act, but all that’s happened in-between makes her character progression seem completely normal.

It’s thanks to that identification that you feel with Ruth, as well as her burgeoning relationship with Tony, that makes these visceral scenes all the more intense. She is you, and her attackers are everything that is wrong with the world.

As Ruth projectile vomits in the showdown in the living room, there’s one girl with underpants on her head as an impromptu balaclava, a man in a dressing gown with a shot-off hand, and blood everywhere. It all seems a bit ridiculous, and yet the danger is very real. An apposite description perhaps, for today’s political climate.

In Conclusion

One of the most overused words in film criticism is ‘timely’. I know I’m guilty of throwing it around way too often. And yet it’s hard to think of a film that deserves that description as much as I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. Even the title is an accurate portrayal of how so many feel in a world that is now led by Donald Trump and his ilk.

This film feels like the world right now; unpredictable, funny (in an ‘Is this really happening?’ kind of way), frightening, confusing, unsettling, bizarre, and a little bit unreal. It’s a film so ‘of now’, that come 2018, it might seem hilariously dated. Let’s hope so.

The benefit of having a film so specifically of the era we’re living in, is that it’s reassuring. Strange, to call a film this violent and pessimistic reassuring. Yet underneath all the violence and the nihilism, what I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore says, to all those so deeply worried about the way the world is turning is ‘I know. Me too’. There’s something beautiful about that.

What other films reflect the way you feel about the world right now?

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore was released in the US and UK on 24th February 2017.