Blue Ruin adds darkness to film noir. Because sometimes in noir -- no matter how hard that good leading figure tries -- the blackness is inescapable. There's the fate of the situation that the leading figure tries to overcome, tries to correct; he or she just wants to do what's right. And they do. I think our very lost hero here even finds his way. Why isn't that enough to free him? He's good enough to escape this awful cobweb of events. But there is no one spider who has spun the web. It's a stark, dark case of the way things are. This is not a "fun" film. It takes its subject very seriously. Blue Ruin grapples with moral issues and leaves the viewer still wrestling. In Blue Ruin's cinematography there are qualities of a first film, a touch of the new and amateur. But this oddly enhances its quality and gives the story the air of a docu-drama. You watch it and think: "surely this could happen". With all the rough edges and awkwardness of real life. You don't know why. The story is too solid to answer its questions. Life is more like wrestling than dancing.
