Review in Brief: I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

I think the best thing I can say about Macon Blair’s debut as writer-director is that it’s a curiosity. For years he’s been a game regular as an actor in grisly genre fare (collaborations with Jeremy Saulnier stand out) and now he helms a story about a serious overreaction to a burglary. Melanie Lynskey (still amazing two decades after HEAVENLY CREATURES) is our grounded but increasingly disturbed protagonist and Elijah Wood gives good weirdo. While I’ve got no problem with the premise or the central performances the tone of the thing that’s the problem, with the supposedly sinister villains coming across as cartoony and a refreshingly shambolic shootout scene at the end quickly giving way to an unnecessary chase and a muddy (or swampy if we’re being literal) conclusion. As a show of Blair’s artistic potential, I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE is admirable and pretty unique, but as a fully satisfying finished film, I’m not so sure.

About Sam Sewell-Peterson

Writer and film fanatic fond of black comedies, sci-fi, animation and films about dysfunctional families.
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