"I'm Not Here" is a pointless film exercise in tracing a multi-generation pattern of the lives of alcoholic men. It is also manipulative in its thin plot and static in its cinematic structure.

The form of the film resembles a play by Samuel Beckett that focuses on an old man playing reel-to-reel tapes that recall moments in his past. The man is for the most part silent, and the audience is forced to listen to his maudlin tape recordings. In the case of "I'm Not Here," the protagonist Steven is totally silent throughout the film, as his thoughts are guided by free association that segues into his past with flashbacks.

Steven's past is a sordid tale of a drunken men, and the film's message is clearly some sort of depiction of "toxic masculinity." Steven's father was a drunk and a closeted homosexual who took his life. Six-year-old Steven was present to hear the shot and apparently witness the death of his kind but flawed father.

In the next generation, Steven is riding the same curve as his father. Bottles of vodka litter the home, and he cannot keep a job. His long-suffering wife takes a lover, and she subsequently sues Steven for divorce. As implied in the film, Steven has grown old in isolation, a lonely, lost alcoholic.

In the never-ending flashback scenes, there are occasionally cheery moments where the characters intone innocuous lines like "life is good." But there was no attempt on the part of the filmmakers to offer a venue for the alcoholic men to get help. Clichés abound like the moment when Steven and his wife talk about having a second child, as if that will solve all their problems.

At the close of the film credits, there was an odd tribute to a friend with a platitude about how everything in life is possible! This was the antithesis of the film itself that suggested there is no way out for the wounded souls of the world whose favorite words are: "Vodka rocks."

I'll be blunt, like some others I'm not a big fan of this movie. Too slow paced, made me struggle to stay awake, and to be honest not that of a great story, or just a story that has been done before. An alcoholic looking back on his life and on what went wrong at some point, struggling with commiting suicide or not, it could have been something but in the end it's just an average movie. J.K. Simmons has the easiest role in his career as he doesn't say one word during the entire movie, he just have to look sorry and sad and doesn't have to remember one single line. I don't say the acting was bad, but it's just not a movie I will remember. In a couple days I will have forgotten everything about this movie.

Acting at every age level in this film is exceptional from C.K. Simmons on down. Cute kids offset the struggles of their parents in this story. Tender couples scenes and family moments help soften the extreme regrets and personal isolation depicted to have resulted from alcoholism. There is no happy, heroic rehabilitation shown here. But the human foils and frailties are worth watching.