Before Yellowjackets, Elijah Wood And Melanie Lynskey Teamed Up For An Underrated Netflix Movie
There was a wonderful time when Netflix had all the money in the world, but hadn't decided to make all their content fit into a perfect algorithm determined by a mysterious supercomputer (in my mind this thing looks like the Master Control Program from "TRON") and as a result, they greenlit some really wild stuff. Bong Joon-ho's "Okja" comes to mind as does this really quirky dark comedy called "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" starring the great Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, and that's the one I want to talk a little about today.
"Yellowjackets" and "The Last of Us" has propelled Lynskey onto a lot of people's radar recently. She's been killing it since her debut appearance in Peter Jackson's "Heavenly Creatures" and it's about dang time she's getting the appreciation she deserves.
One of the side benefits of breaking out at this point in her career is that people can go back and see all the great work she's done over the years and one of those happy discoveries will be "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore," which happens to pair her with "Yellowjackets" season 2 co-star Elijah Wood.
Written and directed by Macon Blair, this movie is about a lonely woman who is burgled and just won't stand for her having her stuff stolen. She recruits her ninja star-obsessed neighbor (Wood) to get her stuff back and things only go downhill from there. This film is bonkers in all the right ways, existing somewhere between a Coen Brothers movie and "Napoleon Dynamite." It's wholly unique and weird and totally its own thing. Again, this was before Netflix's mandate was to tick boxes off of an algorithm's checklist.
Weirdos being weird together
"I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" is a great showcase for Lynskey, but it's also a wonderful excuse for Wood to show his weird side, something he embraced post-"Lord of the Rings" in a big way. Remember, he played the creepy serial killer, Kevin, in "Sin City", the stalkery Patrick in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and a straight-up psychopath in "Maniac." The dude obviously loves to play outlandish characters, which makes his appearance in "Yellowjackets" even more fun.
His character, Walter, spends most of his time falling for Christina Ricci's Misty and both are gloriously eccentric. Maybe dangerously so. This also isn't the first time Wood has worked with Ricci, by the way. The two appeared together in Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" in 1997.
Their chemistry is also top-notch, but after watching "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" you can't help but hope that "Yellowjackets" throws Wood and Lynskey into more scenes with each other. Right now "Yellowjackets" feels like it's living in that same "how does this exist?" weird world that much of Netflix's early movies feel like. If you seek out Blair's film I guarantee you'll be looking to season 3 of "Yellowjackets" with some demanding eyes.
You hear that, Showtime? We want more Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood on-screen!