Sundance Film Review: I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore (dir by Macon Blair)

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(With the Sundance Film Festival currently taking place in Colorado, I am currently reviewing films that originally made a splash at Sundance!)

This is a sad story.

I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore created quite a stir when it premiered at Sundance last year. It may be hard to believe but, for a brief while, this film has just as much Sundance buzz as both Mudbound and Get Out. It even won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, which has helped to launch many independent films into the public consciousness.

So, why isn’t I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore a better known film?

Unfortunately, the distribution rights for this film were purchased by Netflix. With very little fanfare and, as far as I can tell, not even the briefest of theatrical releases, Netflix started streaming I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore on February 24th. With Netflix putting most of its promotional muscle behind Mudbound, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore has been somewhat overlooked. You can watch it, of course. You can go on Netflix and you’ll find it sitting there with Sandy Wexler and maybe a Uwe Boll dragon movie. Obviously, some distribution is better than no distribution and I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore is probably too quirky of a movie to have ever set the box office on fire but still, it’s hard not to feel that this movie deserved better.

It tells the story of Ruth (Melanie Lynesky), a nursing assistant who is having a bad day. One her patients dies. She has to deal with an elderly racist. She gets stuck in traffic and can only watch helplessly as a truck spews toxic exhaust into the environment. When she stops off at a bar and tries to read book, a stranger casually tells her how the it ends. As you can guess from the film’s title, this is not the world in which Ruth wants to live. While she’s not the type to demand perfection, would it kill people to be just a little bit considerate?

Things get even worse when Ruth returns home and discovers that someone has broken into her house. Whoever it was didn’t get away with much, just some medication, some silverware, and Ruth’s laptop. The police are indifferent and basically blame Ruth, telling her that it’s her own fault for leaving her door unlocked. Her neighbors are even less helpful, all claiming that they didn’t see anyone breaking into Ruth’s house. No one seems to care.

No one but Tony.

Tony (who is played by Elijah Wood) is one of Ruth’s neighbors. He likes to listen to heavy metal music. He likes to work out. He claims to be an expert in martial arts. We’ve all known someone like Tony. However, it turns out that Tony is the only person as upset about the break-in as Ruth is.

Tony and Ruth work together to try to track down Ruth’s stuff. It starts out fairly simple but then gets progressively more complicated (and violent) as things go on. Ruth and Tony become unlikely heroes. (In one of the film’s more memorable moments, Ruth witnesses a sudden burst of violence and reacts by throwing up.) The world may tell Ruth and Tony that they should just accept things the way that they are but Ruth and Tony aren’t willing to do that…

I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore was directed by Macon Blair, who previously starred in the thematically similar Blue Ruin. It’s not a perfect film, of course. There are a few uneven moments but, overall, the film is strong enough that I can’t wait to see what Blair follows it up with. The best thing about the film is that it provides lead roles to Melanie Lynesky and Elijah Wood, two quirky and appealing actors who rarely seem to get the parts that they really deserve. As played by Lynesky and Wood, both Ruth and Tony are so likable and sincere in their desire to make the world a better place that you can’t help but wish the best for both of them.

I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore is a good film and definitely one that deserves more attention than it’s received. It’s on Netflix so, the next time you’re trying to decide what to watch, why not take a chance on it?

Previous Sundance Film Reviews:

Blood Simple

2017 in Review: Lisa Marie’s Picks for the 26 Best Films Of The Year

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, it’s time for the list that everyone’s been waiting for! Today, I finish up my look back at the previous year by listing my 26 favorite films of 2017!

(Why 26? Because Lisa doesn’t do odd numbers!)

Now, I should make clear that I haven’t seen every film that was released in 2017. Are you looking at this list and asking yourself, “What about I, Tonya? Phantom Thread? Call Me By Your Name? The Post?” The sad truth of the matter is that, largely due to bad weather and a severe cold that I’m still recovering from, I haven’t seen those films yet. (And, to be honest, everything that I’ve heard about The Post makes me suspect that it’s not going to be for me.) I’ll probably see all of those films next week but the thing is, there’s only so long that a film blogger can put off posting their best-of-the-year post. This is the end of the third week of January. I supposed I could have waited until February but, by that point, who would care?

As I see those films that I still need to see, I’ll modify this list as necessary. That said, I find it hard to believe that I’ll see any more 2017 films that I like more than the films in my current top ten.

(Unfortunately, because the previous year was a bit chaotic, I’m way behind in my reviewing. So, I haven’t posted reviews for all the films on my list. Hopefully, over the upcoming week, I’ll be able to catch up with that! And, fear not, my resolution for 2018 is not to get any further behind in my reviewing and I plan to stick to that.)

A Ghost Story
Lady Bird
Wonder Woman
Kedi
The Big Sick
Baby Driver
It
The Disaster Artist
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Meyerowitz Stories
Logan
Dunkirk
Get Out
Raw
Maudie
It Comes At Night
Megan Leavey
Beauty and the Beast
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnorak
The LEGO Batman Movie
Ingrid Goes West
Before I Fall
Colossal
The Beguiled
Detroit

(Want to see my previous picks? Click here for 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010!)

Previous entries in the TSL’s Look Back at 2017:

4 Shots From 4 Films: Happy Birthday Edgar Allan Poe

Posted on January 19, 2018 by gary loggins

4 Shots from 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots from 4 Films lets the visuals do the talkin. Edgar Allan Poe, master of the macabre, was born on this date in 1809. His poems and shorts stories served as the inspiration for a series of films by Roger Corman, most starring the inimitable Vincent Price! To honor Poe’s birthday, here’s 4 shots of Poe films by director Roger Corman:

House of Usher (1960)

Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

The Raven (1963)

Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Film Review: The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (dir by Harry Lachman)

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to admit that the 1942 film, The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe, turned out to be far different from what I was expecting.

Just based on the title, I was expecting it would be a highly fictionalized, borderline silly film about Edgar Allan Poe defeating his romantic rivals and winning the hand of the woman he loved while still finding time to write The Raven. I figured that there would be at least a few gentlemanly fisticuffs, with Poe portrayed as a combination of Rhett Butler and Cary Grant. Looking at the title, it was easy for me to imagine the film closing with Poe kissing his future wife and then looking straight at the camera. “Quoth the Raven!” he would say and wink while romantic music swelled in the background…

But no. The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe is actually a very conventional biopic. With a running time of only 67 minutes, the movie often feels rather rushed but it still manages to include most of the better known details of Edgar Allan Poe’s short but eventful life. (An ever-present narrator is always ready to fill us in on every thing that happens off-screen.) The film doesn’t spend much time on what initially inspired Poe’s macabre imagination. There’s a scene of Poe, as a child, standing on a desolate hill and looking at a raven perched in a dead tree. With the exception of an extended section that deals with Annabel Lee, that’s about as deep as the movie is willing to get as far as Poe’s art is concerned.

When Poe grows up, he’s played by actor Sheppard Strudwick, who has a good mustache but never exactly comes across as being the type of tortured genius who would eventually end up both revolutionizing literature and drinking himself to death. The majority of the film deals with Poe’s advocacy for copyright reform, which is an important issue but not exactly the most cinematic of concerns. Poe survives college. Poe tries to sell The Raven for $25. Eventually, Poe marries Virginia Clemm (Linda Darnell) and her subsequent sickness and death leads to not only Poe’s greatest work but also his own tragic end.

Along the way, Poe meets both Thomas Jefferson and Charles Dickens. Jefferson shows up long enough to tell a young Poe that he’s a good writer and that he needs to stop gambling. Dickens meets Poe and encourages him to continue to advocate for better copyright laws.

It is known that Poe and Dickens actually did meet but did Poe also meet Thomas Jefferson? Legend says that he did but no one knows for sure. Here’s what we do know:

Poe attended the University of Virginia in 1826. The University’s founder, former President Thomas Jefferson, was still alive in 1826 and would often invite promising students to Monticello. Whether Jefferson was still doing that when Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia is questionable. Jefferson died five months after Poe started his studies.

As for Dickens, Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe admired each other’s writing and they met in Philadelphia during Dickens’s 1842 tour of North America. No record has been kept of what they discussed, though some think that Dickens told Poe about his pet raven and perhaps inspired Poe’s best-remembered poem. In the movie, they discuss copyright laws, which is nowhere near as much fun.

(When it comes to Poe’s meetings with both Jefferson and Dickens, it is perhaps best to remember the lesson of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and print the legend.)

The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe is a very short film and an obviously low-budget one as well. When the presence of that somewhat pedantic narrator, The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe feels more like an educational special than a real movie. It’s an okay introduction to Poe’s life but, ultimately, the best way to get to know Edgar Allan Poe is to sit down and start reading.

Artwork of the Day: Edgar and the Raven (by Paul Green)

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Dazzling Erin

by Paul Green

Music Video of the Day: Old Black Clown by Edgar Allan Poets (2012, dir by ????)

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today is Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday! If he were still alive today, he would be 209 years old. He would probably be the oldest man on the planet. Certainly, I think we would all be rather amazed at his vitality. Unfortunately, Poe is no longer with us. He was only forty years old when he died but his influence lives on.

You would think that there would be a hundred music videos based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Well, you would be wrong. While Poe’s work has inspired countless musicians (and there have been several songs based on his work), there aren’t many “official” music videos of those songs.

(There’s plenty of unofficial and amateur videos, of course. But, for music video of the day, I know that Val preferred to use only official videos and, while I’m filling in for her, I’m going to abide by her rules.)

However, there is a band that was not only influenced by Poe but which proudly displays that influence. Edgar Allan Poets is a Los Angeles band that lists its two greatest influences as being Poe and Hitchcock. Their music has a haunting, rather dream-like feel to it.

This video is for their song Old Black Clown.

Enjoy!