‘I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore’ Movie Review: Elijah Woods’ Rattail And A Very Large Snake

What starts out as a film about a lonely young woman in the rural parts of the south ends in pretty much the same manner. The Netflix film I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore is directed by Macon Blair and stars Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood. Blair is also known for the films Blue Ruin (2013) and Green Room (2015.)

While the film begins rather boring and doesn’t have much plot, it definitely picks up about halfway through. There were times that I thought there was no solution to the film, its problem at the beginning are not its problem towards the end. However, the last half hour is about as suspenseful as they get.

The film felt dry at times, an obvious attempt at capturing rural life in the south. While I did laugh several times, I couldn’t help but feel like there were been much better ways to carry the story along. The main character Ruth (Lynskey) somehow becomes the most unlikeable character in the film, having no sense of control and no motive for almost any of her actions. We’ve also got Woods starring as Tony, a sort of hero’s sidekick who loves the art of ninja fighting and has a rattail that didn’t make sense for any part of the film. The villains in the movie, Christian (Devon Graye), Dez (Jane Levy) and Marshall (David Yow,) who don’t serve a purpose until the end, are possibly the best thing to come into the movie – they gave it a sense of purpose and a reason to finish it out.

However, the best character in this movie is Meredith Rumack (Christine Woods,) a southern housewife who clearly married into money for the wrong reasons. Her humor in the few scenes she occupies are worth all the boring scenes I put up with beforehand. Maybe it’s because she’s the only person with life in this movie or because she was the only person who felt real, I somehow felt connected to her.

While I do see how the film was designed to create a young woman who got fed up with being put down and decided to take matters into her own hands, I honestly feel like there were much better ways to showcase character development. Her slow movement and inability to see where she’s going make for a character better suited for the side.

Overall, the film achieved a goal in the end but it was painful to sit through at times. While I loved the drama of the ending, I despised the slow nature of the first three-quarters of the film; wishing they would just get to the point. There were many cringeworthy choices made throughout the movie that didn’t seem necessary to any sort of plot development. I’m definitely giving my Oscar nominations to the cottonmouth snake at the end because he helped the story come to a close.