Cruel and Unusual

OUTSIDE IN (A-minus) - Edie Falco and Jay Duplass slug it out as heavyweights in Lynn Shelton's lived-in drama about a school teacher who has worked to free her former student and his struggle to re-enter small-town life after 20 years in prison. Falco's face teaches a master class in acting, and Duplass is perfect as Chris, the doe-eyed man-child pining for Falco's Carol, who is stuck in a loveless marriage and battling her morose, bratty teenager, Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever, "Short-Term 12").

Chris took the fall for a group crime, involving his brother and a friend, which ended up in a death. He did 20 years without squealing, and now he returns to soggy Everett, Wash., tooling around on his BMX bike, as if he were still a high school senior. He professes his love for Carol, who wisely resists but who also hates her own household. Meantime, Hildy is drawn to the brooding, aimless sad-sack.

Shelton co-wrote the spare, sharp script with Duplass.  She has been doing a lot of mainstream TV work lately to pay the bills, and here turns in her best effort since 2012's "Your Sister's Sister," which featured Jay's brother Mark in a different kind of love triangle. They take the story on a realistic arc, avoiding a pat, conventional ending. Falco -- plain, if not haggard-looking -- runs a gamut of emotions with low-key grace, and Duplass was born to inhabit this bundle of repressed needs. A few scenes slip into trite exchanges involving secondary characters, but this is a gripping slice of life.

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (B-minus) - Like life, this is nasty, brutal and dreary. Joaquin Phoenix lumbers monosyllabically through this relentless revenge flick about a hammer-wielding thug whose job seems to be to rescue young girls from human traffickers. Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, the hardcore realist behind "Morvern Callar," "Ratcatcher" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin," offers up a dark, twisted, stylish nightmare that challenges you to sit through it.

Adapting source material by Jonathan Ames (HBO's "Bored to Death"), Ramsay dispenses with extensive dialogue and easy exposition, instead going for mood and id. Phoenix is bulked up and beyond miserable, resembling a psychotic homeless man. His Joe is exorcising childhood demons, mainly through vengeful violence and suicidal ideations. He stumbles on a sex ring that apparently involves a governor and a senator, with the aim of rescuing one little blond-haired, blue-eyed tween in particular (Ekaterina Samsonov). Ramsay adopts a "Mean Streets" urgency to her shots, with effective extreme close-ups, flashbacks, and jump-cut editing that gives the oldies on the soundtrack a menacing staccato effect. Like life, this is a slog. Ramsay and Phoenix are a daunting team. Hang out with them at your peril.

BONUS TRACKS
From "Outside In's" closing credits, Andrew Bird with "By Any Means":



From "Never's" scratchy oldies soundtrack, "Angel Baby" by Rosie & the Originals, from 1961:



And the pure cheese of Charlene's pure '70s cheese, "I've Never Been to Me":