I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore is an updated, dark comedy take on Michael Douglas’s white man loses his shit thriller Falling Down, only much more politically correct (there’s no shot Falling Down as it is gets greenlit in 2017).  Ruth has had it up to here with the jerks she crosses paths with everyday in the form of rude coworkers, inconsiderate dog walkers, line cutters, etc, and when her house gets broken into this pushes her over the edge.  With little help from the authorities, she sets out to track down her belongings by any means necessary and give the culprits a piece of her mind.

While I think the intention is to portray Ruth as the only courteous person in a neighborhood full of deplorables, I had a slightly different take.  It reminded me of one of my favorite pieces of dialogue ever from one of my favorite TV shows ever, Justified.  During a particular episode, a low life criminal is ranting to US Marshall Raylan Givens about the multitude of injustices he has been encountering, and Raylan’s perfect rebuttal is “You ever hear the saying ‘If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole.  But if you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.”  I don’t think Ruth is such an angel herself.

This is the directorial debut of Macon Blair, who cinephiles will recognize as an actor from Jeremy Saulnier’s films Blue Ruin and Green Room (sidenote:  I’m OBSESSED with Green Room, check it out).  This is very different than those dark, not at all comic films, but you can see Saulnier’s influence regardless, especially in the few instances of very graphic violence.  I Don’t Feel at Home netted a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes as well as won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, but I’m less enthusiastic.  I appreciate the quirky and valiant effort to make something different, but just found the film to be kind of dumb.  Streaming on Netflix.  Grade: C