Well, lookie here. In this, the year 2018, somebody thought it’d be a good idea to give Whitney Cummings and her extremely fresh “men be like, women be like” comedy a big-budget vehicle with an all-star cast. If ever there was an argument for Hollywood not being a meritocracy, this would be it. This poster is like a story problem from elementary school: “How many solidly funny character actors does it take to make Cummings’ exhaustingly retrograde gags even vaguely palatable or relevant?” If you need us, we’ll be writing the script equivalent of fan-fiction for Cecily Strong, Beanie Feldstein, James Marsden, Sofia Vergara, Toby Kebbell, and yes, even you, Blake Griffin.
The man on the poster for Lynne Ramsay’s latest feature, You Were Never Really Here, appears to be having a bad day. The broken, wavy letters, the trail of bubbles, and that deep blue background, all imply that he has just fallen (fully-clothed) into a rather unwelcoming body of water. He’s sinking fast, and is probably drowning. Presumably, this unfortunate character is the film’s lead, Joaquin Phoenix, and in a weird, “cinematic karma” sort of way, this makes sense. In 2010, Phoenix starred in the maligned mockumentary, I’m Still Here. Could Ramsay’s title represent a sort of spiteful retort? “You were never really here,” she yells at Joaquin as she pushes him off the edge of a bridge and into a freezing river…Perhaps that theory is a stretch, but it’s surely a testament to the amount of story packed into this minimalistic poster. Where is “here?” Where did Joaquin fall from, and why? Will he make it out alive? We’ll be holding our breath until this one comes out.
This poster is designed to evoke the idea of a Polaroid. This stirs ideas of the past and nostalgia, which could be a hint to the crime that serves as the movie’s plot, or to the classic roots of the noir genre. On the other hand, the purple hue that saturates the image makes the subject feel incredibly modern but also evokes the feeling of overexposure. The palm trees set us firmly in Los Angeles, but that they are upside down and superimposed with the images of Kirke and Kravitz, inspire the idea that their worlds are in disarray. But what might be most interesting about the composition is the gun that sits below the main image, almost like a colophon. Its placement gives the object an incredible amount of focus and communicates that everything that happens in this movie is down to the gun.
Loved the article? Of course, you did! Then check out our first entry into the series: Fandor’s Favorite Movie Posters: January. And be sure to check in for new entries every month (and in-between).
