Paying blatant homage to films like Maniac, Bad Lieutenant and Taxi Driver, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE starts off raw and mesmerizing but ends on a flaccid note.
It comes off like a college-level production, rife with college-level writing, acting and go nowhere storytelling. It’s as one-note as they come and nothing more.
Above all, the horror in AYLA is that of human vulnerability, in which emotion can breed quiet but destructive monsters.
It is, at turns, wild and simmering, affecting and harrowing, funny and brutal, ugly and beautiful, brutal and uplifting.
A prequel of sorts to Nalo Hopkinson's acclaimed 1998 book BROWN GIRL IN THE RING, BROWN GIRL BEGINS is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic story adapted for the screen by Canadian director and writer Sharon Lewis.
