"Nowhere is Home": Off-line humor for what it should be

Alfonso 2021-12-27 08:01:50

If life teases you

When you are running around for a day, you are disturbed by the uproars and headaches, and you can finally drag your tired body and mind back home to relax, and suddenly find that the bad luck is not over—the house has been burgled, what will you do? ? The first countermeasure must be to call the police. However, the urgency of such cases is very low for the police. They will record the situation and let you wait for notification. You probably understand in your heart that the chances of finding the lost item are slim, so you have to worry about the thief while you lose money, forget about it in the long wait, and then your life will continue...

"Nowhere is Home", which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award, is based on the above situation. Director McCann Blair is an actor. He has collaborated with his friend director Jeremy Solnier in "Blue Ruins". The revenge of the unwilling person starring McCann has brought snowball troubles. The director's debut "Nowhere is Home", which formed an interesting response, was inspired by his personal experience. In 2013, his home suffered a burglary. The police ignored the case, and the things they lost are still missing. Literary and art workers are very angry, and the consequences are serious. So McCann filmed the film, spoke with the work, ruthlessly cleaned up the neurotic villain and thieves and hacked a handful of ineffective police officers.

The heroine of "Nowhere is Home" Ruth (which means compassion and sorrow as a noun) is a lonely nurse who has a good figure, drinks beer as water, and suffers from depression. When she went home and found that her laptop, grandma's silverware and anti-anxiety and depression medication had been stolen, she chose to call the police. After being treated perfunctorily, she put away her fragility and regained her courage, turned into a detective and started an investigation with Tony Neighbourhood. Relying on the carefully collected evidence and keen intuition, the two of them went all the way and successfully solved the case together. Although there was an extremely absurd violent bloodshed in the middle of the sprawling branch, the just complaint against the private house and the persistent perseverance to recover one's own property/real estate gave the film a three-pointed perspective. After this battle, Ruth returned to a peaceful life but had a different background in life-she was no longer a counselor to dodge and retreat, and the soft surface was filled with spiritual energy to face the injustice. Audiences who have eaten dumb loss, have fire and have nowhere to send out will also be hooked. In reality, they may comfort themselves with "Forget it". Fortunately, there are movies to relieve depression, and then look at themselves: whether they still have to shoot when they need to shoot, Young man sentiment for what he should be?

"I just want people to stop being bastards"

At the beginning of the film that wants to promote and suppress, Ruth has her own bad luck scene. News of the proliferation of guns and terrorist attacks was broadcast on the nursing home's TV. The old lady Ruth was taking care of scolded social corruption with unbearable words, and turned her head and closed her eyes. The family members who took care of the funeral asked Ruth about her last words, but she was embarrassed when she couldn't repeat it. This seemingly simple and frustrating opening set the ironic tone of the whole film, and also cleverly laid the groundwork: the gun reselling and bloody shooting mentioned in the news reappear in the later stage of the film during the trading and fighting of theft gangs; and the old lady is dying. The dissatisfaction of the former paralyzed in bed has also become the emotional entrance of the story-this world is such a bastard, but if you want to fight back while you are young or wait for the elderly to get addicted, the choice is yours.

After finishing her work, Ruth passed through the parking lane, and was unable to enter or retreat by the car that pulled out of the warehouse. When she went to the supermarket to shop, she silently picked up the goods touched by others, and was obviously over-buyed in the "fast lane with less than 15 goods". Check out first; go to the bar to read a book and drink. The man next door (the director himself) who was supposed to talk about a novel is interested in dating, but he was accidentally spoiled to the end; when he went home, he found the sign of "no defecation" was clearly standing in the yard , But it is still a "souvenir" left by dog ​​walkers on this visit... When life was like playing a game of minesweeping, just opening a brick would reveal the distribution of the number of people who had no products around. Although annoyed but fortunately There is a home to return to-the last safe haven in the world.

However, all this apparent peace collapsed like a bomb when Ruth discovered that her home was stolen. Ruth, who spent the night at her best friend's house, read a bedtime book to her friend's daughter, and she burst into tears when she read: "No one knows how big the universe is, it may be endless". Numerous annoying things accumulate sand into towers, coupled with the burglary that broke people's most basic security needs, Ruth, who was crushed by the last straw, only felt the loneliness and helplessness of "Where is my home in the big world". The super long title of the film "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" is here.

When Ruth complained to her friend about her miserable situation, she showed obvious world-weariness—"Everyone is annoying"; and when she received a picture of "Female Warrior Riding a Dragon Fighting" from the little girl the next morning, Ruth Finally decided to give color to those who do not speak public morals and trample on rights... Follow the clues to find out the identity of the thief. Ruth discovered that he is a rich second-generation gangster. When confronted with her father, she was asked how much compensation she would pay. Ruth resolutely refuted it. : "I just want people to stop being bastards." Money is not important, justice is the highest.

The protagonist Tony the dog walker formed an alliance with Ruth and became her strong back-up, helping her save her life several times. Ruth, who once had the judgment that "life is like a sneeze, turns into blue smoke in a blink of an eye", asked him when she was confused: "What are we doing in the world?" Tony replied, "Try to be a good person, or a better person." Zai Lu After Si Wei vented his anger and privately moved Tiger Rattan from the thief's father's house, Tony was dissatisfied and even sent it back to Rattan himself. It is precisely because of his adherence to principles that he appeared in time for Ruth in the mansion melee. In the film, cyclists walking along the S-shaped route on the street under the sun repeatedly appear, implying that "the road is tortuous and the future is bright", just like the motto: "Do the right thing, so that you can never go wrong." .

The black humor I lost to you

As a thriller comedy, "Nowhere is Home", under the framework of the detective film, the type is mixed, the laughter is strange, the small freshness and the evil taste go hand in hand, and the off-line plot that does not follow the routine is unexpected. Just as the characters in the film repeatedly emphasized "don't spoiler" when they talked about the novel they are reading, the interesting thing about the film lies in the plot arrangement that points to the other side and makes a shot, with the Coen brothers and Quentin's black humor. In the absurd situation, the sudden change of the painting style seems reasonable and reasonable.

When Ruth, who was disappointed after calling the police, expressed anger, we thought she was talking to a close old friend, but when the camera turned around, it turned out to be the ignorant daughter of a friend. Go to the thrift store to find the silverware, pick it up, and go. When arguing with the frail old owner, Ruth’s finger was broken. The thieves met in the woods like a cult, but they were also vulnerable: the leader Marshall found the middle-aged gang. The guy bought a gun, took advantage of his mouth, and was punched, directly knocking out the dentures. It seems that the weak have sudden lethality, and they can still follow the food chain of strength by pretending to be powerful. Black humor is spontaneously born in the misplaced laughter.

And that mansion shootout brought the off-line humor to the extreme: Marshall, as a novice shooting killer, shook his head with his hands, and was so nervous that he scared his pants to urinate; the unpredictable amputated blood plasma and Ruth's vomit were all together. Flying, the scene was very embarrassing for a while. The funny thing is the female gangster. After she hit Tony's meteor dart, she stabbed him several times with undiminished combat effectiveness, but was killed by a bullet rebound from her partner Marshall. After the two were chased and fled into the woods, Ruth once again used her wit and used the water snake to solve the murderer. During the whole process, only legitimate defense did not take the initiative to hurt people. They still adhered to the principle of "good people".

After Leaving Tony, who was seriously injured, she appeared alone in the place where the two used to coexist. Various scenes hinted and ended with Tony's mysterious smile in the background of sensational music and holy light, creating an atmosphere of nostalgia for his death; Then the camera opened, it turned out that this was the gaze he loved in the barbecue smoke. This "dead and alive" misleading has perfectly condensed the whole film with black humor.

The film’s male protagonist Tony is played by Elijah Wood. The Frodo actor in "The Lord of the Rings" wears glasses and turns into a Chinese fan. He has weapons such as the gossip talisman, the Chinese garden dog, the nunchaku morning star hammer and the sentence. The high-energy Chinese "Quiet" has created special laughs; and the heroine Ruth is played by New Zealand actor Melanie Linski, who plays Charlie Sheen's fanatical stalker in the series "Two and a half heroes". Interestingly, Melanie and Wood have worked with director Peter Jackson in the "Angels of Sin" and "Lord of the Rings" series respectively. In addition, the soundtrack of "Nowhere is Home" is also very apt and beautiful, giving the film a beautiful and lonely poetry. "What you have in the world is time." This seemingly ordinary comforting phrase speaks to the essence of life-getting up and taking risks. This moment may be a turning point in life. Who could have predicted it?

[This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of "Movie World" magazine, please do not reprint_(:зゝ∠)_]

View more about I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore. reviews

Extended Reading
  • Lilla 2022-03-21 09:02:32

    The first five minutes worked like a god

  • Marcos 2022-03-21 09:02:32

    The routines that can be completely imagined, various types of elements are simmered in disorder, the degree of completion is not bad, and the sense of existence is very poor. I thought the casting of the actors was also a failure. Just don't like it.

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore. quotes

  • [first lines]

    Mrs. Hamble: [watching news report about a riot from her hospital bed] Just look at those goddamn monkeys.

    Ruth: Why don't we turn this off, huh?

    Mrs. Hamble: The way they shoved this country right down the fuckin' stinker. Keep your gigantic monkey dick out of my good pussy.

    [then breathes her last]

    Mrs. Hamble's Son: [a short time later her doctor] Did...? Did she have any last words?

    ER Doctor: [looks over to Ruth]

  • Ruth: Patient died today. I was in the room.

    Angie: Oh. She was special, huh?

    Ruth: No. She sucked. Oh, yeah. She was a real shithead. But it doesn't matter. They'll roll her out... and she'll become smoke. Just... carbon. My grandma Sally, that was her silver that they stole, you know?

    Angie: Yeah.

    Ruth: She literally breathed life into people who'd been exploded. She was a war nurse.

    Angie: Yeah, I remember.

    Ruth: Spent her retirement bringing dinner to folks with cancer. And then she had a stroke... and she was just... just carbon too. And now I'm the only one who remembers any of that, and pretty soon... I'll just be carbon. So none of it matters.