With the preview screening cancelled many months ago due to a misplaced print and a depressingly limited general release, I missed Blue Ruin on its first run. Hurrah for second chances. Sadly, Jeremy Saulnier's second feature (after 2007's splatter-fest, Murder Party) achieved little at the box office though critics have been kind and festival juries have rewarded him justly.
Blue Ruin is a quiet, brooding drama of revenge and murder. When the cops pick up wandering loner, Dwight (Macon Blair), it isn't the standard prejudicial attack on an outsider, but a considerate move to break bad news to a damaged man in a safe environment. Informed that the man guilty of horrific crimes against his family has been released from jail. Dwight sets himself up as an amateur assassin, but his own ineptitude isn't his only downfall and he is soon forced into a brutal battle to protect his estranged family from further harm.
Though less harsh than 2011's Snowtown, Blue Ruin shares a similar tone and quality. If you warmed a cinema seat in that, you'll need to add this to your viewing list. It is a violent and bloody film but not gratuitously so. Most of the violence rumbles under the surface and Dwight is neither a villain nor a gung-ho killer that we are supposed to celebrate. For those who found themselves dismayed at the mess Faqua made of The Equalizer, fear not, Saulnier's protagonist is not intended to inspire or excite. On another day, Dwight may be a companion to Into The Wild's Christopher McCandless, but years of silent brooding have led him into a different kind of action.
Blair doesn't make the mistake of hoping the audience likes Dwight, but the precision with which he makes Dwight both vague and determined makes it hard not to go along with him and hope he succeeds, or at least gets away with it. Though there are occasional moments that shock, Blair plays Dwight as a considered man who blanches at his own actions.
There are one or two lose threads left dangling in the story, but nothing that detracts from the impact of the piece. Saulnier doesn't delight in the mayhem and doesn't treat Blue Ruin as an excuse to bathe us in blood. With Murder Party he delivered the humour and enjoyment but with Blue Ruin he grimly pulls up our eyelids so we have to witness as bereavement expresses itself with murderous eloquence.
Next up for Saulnier is another horror, Green Room, staring Patrick Stewart and Imogen Poots and my heart is already sinking after Poot's ham-fisted attempt at depth in Long Way Down. But that doom can wait for another day. For now, Blue Ruin is worthy film waiting to join my library.
For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.
Blue Ruin is a quiet, brooding drama of revenge and murder. When the cops pick up wandering loner, Dwight (Macon Blair), it isn't the standard prejudicial attack on an outsider, but a considerate move to break bad news to a damaged man in a safe environment. Informed that the man guilty of horrific crimes against his family has been released from jail. Dwight sets himself up as an amateur assassin, but his own ineptitude isn't his only downfall and he is soon forced into a brutal battle to protect his estranged family from further harm.
Though less harsh than 2011's Snowtown, Blue Ruin shares a similar tone and quality. If you warmed a cinema seat in that, you'll need to add this to your viewing list. It is a violent and bloody film but not gratuitously so. Most of the violence rumbles under the surface and Dwight is neither a villain nor a gung-ho killer that we are supposed to celebrate. For those who found themselves dismayed at the mess Faqua made of The Equalizer, fear not, Saulnier's protagonist is not intended to inspire or excite. On another day, Dwight may be a companion to Into The Wild's Christopher McCandless, but years of silent brooding have led him into a different kind of action.
Blair doesn't make the mistake of hoping the audience likes Dwight, but the precision with which he makes Dwight both vague and determined makes it hard not to go along with him and hope he succeeds, or at least gets away with it. Though there are occasional moments that shock, Blair plays Dwight as a considered man who blanches at his own actions.
There are one or two lose threads left dangling in the story, but nothing that detracts from the impact of the piece. Saulnier doesn't delight in the mayhem and doesn't treat Blue Ruin as an excuse to bathe us in blood. With Murder Party he delivered the humour and enjoyment but with Blue Ruin he grimly pulls up our eyelids so we have to witness as bereavement expresses itself with murderous eloquence.
Next up for Saulnier is another horror, Green Room, staring Patrick Stewart and Imogen Poots and my heart is already sinking after Poot's ham-fisted attempt at depth in Long Way Down. But that doom can wait for another day. For now, Blue Ruin is worthy film waiting to join my library.
For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page.