Delayed Reaction: I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore

The Pitch: What if Falling Down was made with a clearly depressed woman?

A woman gets mixed up in a robbery plot when she goes looking for her stolen computer.

I enjoy that a whole subgenre exists that I call "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore." movies. I wouldn't say many of these movies are favorites of mine. In fact, the movie I pulled that quote from is a one of the classic films I most actively dislike. Nothing to Lose is an entertaining enough comedy. Falling Down maybe takes itself to seriously. I do adore God Bless America though, which is a shame, because it's the most similar to I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (IDFaHiTWA, for short). So, I spent an unfortunate about of the movie thinking "I'd rather be watching God Bless America right now".

IDFaHiTWA feels like a movie full of mostly-formed ideas. Not bad ideas, just incomplete ones. It abandons the vigilante streak a little before I expected and moves into a crime movie that's not fully cooked enough. It starts discussing police inefficiency and doesn't do much with it. Even a character like Elijah Wood's feels more like a collection of quirks than someone with a story arc. In other words, it feels like a Sundance movie. (Fun fact: I typed that last sentence before I looked up if it was actually a Sundance movie) My go-to comment is that Sundance movies are like short stories that are trying to be novels.  IDFaHiTWA feels like a couple short stories combined to fit novel length. Sometimes that works. A lot of the time, it comes down to personal taste. Had I connected with Lynsky's character even a little bit more, I probably would've ignored a lot more of the messiness of the movie. It's like the telescope effect: movie it a couple degrees and you're looking at something completely different, because it's a compounded effect. I wasn't able to buy in early, so by the end, it was way off the mark.

All that said, I liked elements well enough. I think it's a shame that Lynsky is best known for being on Two and a Half Men and hasn't had that many big opportunities. She's quite good in IDFaHiTWA and plays her character well. There's just some confusion about how that character is supposed to be responding to the rest of the world. Elijah Wood is having a great time being weird. It's almost like he's making a meta joke about him attempting to "break type". Seeing Jane Levy show up was nice, even though it made me kind of miss Suburgatory. I didn't even recognize Christine Woods. She too needs more/better work.

IDFaHiTWA didn't miss its mark much for me. As is, I find it more forgettable than bad.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend