This is a film stripped down to its bare essentials. A man and his mission. Revenge. There is nothing else. No special effects, no love interest, no back stories, no subplots, no jokes, no tears, no laughter. Revenge. Nothing else.
The minimalistic approach of this film becomes immediately clear during the first minutes. We see a homeless man in his daily routines. He takes a bath in an empty house, he looks for food in garbage containers, he watches the sun go down on the beach, he sleeps in a battered old blue Pontiac Bonneville (the title character, I suppose).
Only after fifteen minutes or so into the film, the first words are spoken. A policewoman takes him down to the station to inform him that the man who killed his parents will be released from prison. He suddenly gets busy: preparing the Pontiac for a trip, buying a map, writing a postcard. He succeeds in killing his target immediately after the release. But then trouble begins, because the family members of the murdered man are coming after him, and after his sister.
The film is a very low-key affair, with remarkably little dialogue. 'I'm not used to talking anymore', the main character tells his sister when he meets her. Homeless people don't talk much. It feels the same for the viewer: only the essentials will do, there is no need for extra information or needless banter.
The only thing the director seems to have indulged in, are the bloody killings. We see blood spurting from a head wound and we see a bullet going through a man's head. One of director Jeremy Saulnier's earlier films was called 'Murder Party', and in a way that could also be an appropriate title for this one. Nevertheless, I liked the minimalistic approach in the film. That's what differentiates this indie film from a mainstream thriller.
The minimalistic approach of this film becomes immediately clear during the first minutes. We see a homeless man in his daily routines. He takes a bath in an empty house, he looks for food in garbage containers, he watches the sun go down on the beach, he sleeps in a battered old blue Pontiac Bonneville (the title character, I suppose).
Only after fifteen minutes or so into the film, the first words are spoken. A policewoman takes him down to the station to inform him that the man who killed his parents will be released from prison. He suddenly gets busy: preparing the Pontiac for a trip, buying a map, writing a postcard. He succeeds in killing his target immediately after the release. But then trouble begins, because the family members of the murdered man are coming after him, and after his sister.
The film is a very low-key affair, with remarkably little dialogue. 'I'm not used to talking anymore', the main character tells his sister when he meets her. Homeless people don't talk much. It feels the same for the viewer: only the essentials will do, there is no need for extra information or needless banter.
The only thing the director seems to have indulged in, are the bloody killings. We see blood spurting from a head wound and we see a bullet going through a man's head. One of director Jeremy Saulnier's earlier films was called 'Murder Party', and in a way that could also be an appropriate title for this one. Nevertheless, I liked the minimalistic approach in the film. That's what differentiates this indie film from a mainstream thriller.