Ruth (Melanie Lynskey) isn’t asking for much: She just wants people to not be assholes. Unfortunately, she’s surrounded by them—from the racist patient in the hospital where she works, to the people who cut in line at the grocery store, to the dog owner who, every day, leaves his pup’s turds on her lawn. When someone breaks into Ruth’s house and steals her grandmother’s silverware, something snaps.
I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is the directorial debut of actor Macon Blair, who appeared in longtime buddy Jeremy Saulnier’s movies Blue Ruin and Green Room. Like Green Room, I Don’t Feel at Home was shot in Oregon, and it shares Saulnier’s gritty, Americana-noir qualities. Last month, Blair’s movie won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and—following an increasingly popular distribution model—is forgoing a theatrical release to go up on Netflix this weekend. Regardless of where you watch it, I Don’t Feel at Home is a small, marvelous story that defies easy categorization. The first passages play like an oddball, character-driven indie comedy, but as Ruth tracks down the thieves—in the process enlisting her impulsive, nunchaku-wielding neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood)—it becomes simultaneously scarier and funnier. As it progresses, I Don’t Feel at Home evolves into a taut pulp thriller about an unlikely vigilante.