“Swiss Army Man” was one of my favorite movies of 2016; up there with “La La Land” in terms of enjoyment, and “Arrival” in terms of fulfillment, all while simultaneously remaining wholly original. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, so it seems fitting for Radcliffe’s twin-who’s-not-a-twin, Elijah Wood, to star in an equally unique piece that derives from nothing and delivers something so honest —yet unseen— that it’s a shame that no one will watch it.
Elijah Wood shares the screen with Melanie Lynskey in a Netflix original movie, “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore”, an all too melo-realistic story about a woman’s crusade to reclaim stolen property and attempt to convince people to stop being assholes to each other. After Ruth returns home one night to find the place ransacked and looted of her laptop, ancestral spoons, and prescription medicine, she begins a simple quest; finding her belongings while coping with the fact that people can do such unnecessarily nasty things to one another. Along the way, she grows closer with her offbeat neighbor, Tony (a practicing ninja you’d swear is related to Dwight Schrute), and slowly blazes a trail leading to a criminal organization far more dangerous than she considered. By the end of the movie, she’s gone further than finding her stolen possessions— she winds up bloody, bruised, and nearly killed in an attempt to talk some decency into those she meets in her search.
The movie has a simple premise, and a simple theme, and couldn’t feel more appropriate for the times. We live in an America where we lock our doors, and we don’t talk to strangers. Hell, a lot of us don’t even talk to our neighbors. So when Ruth’s home is broken into, it’s not just invasive— it’s traumatizing to a degree. What the movie does is expose the audience to a very present reality: that some people are assholes. Some people are assholes for very stupid reasons. And some people are assholes for no reason at all. For instance, the man responsible for stealing her laptop,spoons, and drugs is actually the son of a wealthy family, yet he turns to breaking and entering, despite having every opportunity to succeed (a point that his own father makes). The movie is stating a painful truth, and it’s that there are people in this world who are just plain awful.
I don’t like awful people. I’m one for happy endings. Unfortunately, “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” doesn’t resolve the issue of awful people. Instead, it teaches that you have to live with them, because some people are awful for the sake of being awful, and they can’t be convinced otherwise. As a brilliant man once said, “some men just want to watch the world burn.” Regardless, the movie is a resolute narrative that does have something of a happy ending, in the regard that while assholes do exist, so do people who will risk time, reputation, and even their safety for the sake of doing the right thing.
“I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” is streaming on Netflix now.
