Sundance Grand Jury Winner Stars Melanie Lynskey

The presciently titled I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, starring New Plymouth-born actor Melanie Lynskey, pulled off a surprise victory at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Awards ceremony taking the grand jury prize for US dramatic feature, Andrew Pulver reports for the Guardian.

“Often a pointer to future awards and commercial success – having been won in recent years by Whiplash, Fruitvale Station and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – the prize went to the comedy thriller directed by Macon Blair about a woman (Lynskey) out for revenge on the burglars who have stolen her computer,” Pulver writes.

In a Variety review of I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, chief film critic Peter Debruge says:

“You’d have to go all the way back to Heavenly Creatures to find a role that understands what actress Melanie Lynskey brings to the table as clearly as does Blair’s I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. And yet, the fact that it’s taken 20-odd years – this despite lead roles in such even-keel melodramas as Hello I Must Be Going and Happy Christmas along the way – for someone else to tap her good-girl-pushed-too-far potential is cause for celebration among the actress’s fans, who’ll have the chance to discover this odd-bird Netflix original on demand soon enough, as the company plans to release it via its online platform on 24 February.

“It’s the perfect role for Lynskey, who’s wise enough to underplay her character, which allows audiences to pour their own fears and frustrations into everything Ruth represents. And what emerges is a stalwart actress’s best work yet, delivered by an exciting new director to watch.”

In 2016, Lynskey won the festival’s top acting prize, the Special Jury Award, for her role in The Intervention.

Original article by Andrew Pulver, The Guardian, January 30, 2017.