Mute (2018)

IMDb plot summary: A mute bartender goes up against his city's gangsters in an effort to find out what happened to his missing partner.
Directed by Duncan Jones. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, and Seyneb Saleh.

Well, this is an ugly movie in every sense of the word. It looks ugly, the world and characters are ugly, the plot is ugly. The film clearly wants to be Blade Runner-esque, a crime story set a generation or two in the future, but it neglects any meaningful use of that world -- it doesn't impact our story in any way. Which is baffling, because how could it NOT when dealing with an Amish man in an even more tech-heavy world? And yet the movie just doesn't even care about that. It's that kind of thematic sloppiness that drags the movie down and makes it nearly unwatachable at times. It's a good elevator pitch that feels like it got pasted onto a much less interesting already-written crime film.

Edited a moment later to say: Wait, I just realized this is Duncan Jones' new movie. Wow. I don't even know how you make something as great as Moon and as silly-but-fun as Source Code and then eventually do this slog.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Mute < Ramona and Beezus
Mute < The Life of David Gale
Mute > Spy Kids
Mute > Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
Mute < Convict 13
Mute < Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Mute < Maggie's Plan
Mute > Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed
Mute < Opening Night
Mute < Quigley Down Under
Mute < Rio Bravo
Mute < Julia
Final spot: #2387 out of 2953.