I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

2017 Netflix original movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: After a depressed nurse's house is robbed, she and a new friend with his own Chinese star start their own investigation and end up way over their heads.

Daring and unpredictable with a whole lot of Coen-esque hijinks and a gnarled sense of humor, this movie has parts that fit in perfectly with what 2017 was all about, at least in America. A lack of awareness of both the self and others and a sickening apathy have pervaded American soils, and although it's been happening for a while, it really seemed to emerge in 2017. The main character Ruth, played with a nice mix of stoicism/resolve and fear/disgust, is seen at the beginning of the movie running various errands and running into all these situations (people cutting in line or spoiling the plots of books she's reading, for example) that show a world inhabited by people who just don't give a damn about their fellow human beings.

That intensifies when Ruth is robbed, and it intensifies even more once we meet the trio of crooks who robbed her. They're a little filthier and less polite than Coen criminals, but they've got that same sort of nihilism and helplessness and apathy that shows what happens to a world of people when God goes on vacation for a hundred years or so. Each of this slimy trinity is creepy in his or her own way, more so because their relationships with each other are only vaguely hinted at or not explained at all. One of them, played by Devon Graye because I'm guessing that DJ Qualls wasn't available, was especially menacing, especially when he pulls off this slow-motion smile in a mirror. The first time we see him, he's performing an act that puts Home Alone's Wet Bandits to shame. Jane Levy and David Yow play the other two low-budget criminals, the latter especially effective as the patriarch of the crew. They prove that you don't have to be especially skilled, have any resources whatsoever, or even an idea that is any good to bring a little chaos and bloodshed into the world.

It's a chilling thought.

Those guys--especially Yow--become cartoonishly monstrous at the end, contrasting sharply with the protagonist who seems like she could be a real person. Elijah Wood, Ruth's sidekick in this whole thing, is a walking hyperbole, but although the comic and more desperately sad parts of his personality don't really ever feel real, it's still a fun character. He gets a great action moment when he shows off his ninja skills.

I'm not sure it all adds up to anything but the well-paced and breezy sort of ugliness is entertaining enough. It's not the Coens, but I think it's capable of scratching that sort of itch and is one of the better Netflix features.

The title is from a great song (hymn? folk song?) done by the Carter Family and others. I'm singing it now, and if you heard it, you'd be moved.