Blue Ruin
Revenge stories. You thought that they couldn’t do anther one that is both unique and engaging but along comes “Blue Ruin” to prove that it isn’t true. It’s been a pretty great year for film so far and while I didn’t get a chance to see this is a theater, I’m still glad I was able to watch it on DVD. There are some films from three years ago that still haven’t managed a DVD release and thankfully this wasn’t one of them.
The film stars Macon Blair, who is almost a split image of Nathan Lane, as Dwight, a homeless man living out of his car on the shores of Delaware. It’s pretty much inferred off the bat that Dwight is troubled by something as he makes no attempt at panhandling or other form of making money. He doesn’t like people and he likes to keep it that way. A friendly police officer brings Dwight in to inform him that a certain person is getting out of jail and the story slowly begins to unfold from there. I say slowly mostly because I mean just that. Jeremy Saulnier took great care with his breakthrough film, telling the story in a slow burning and delicately paced fashion. We aren’t getting spoon fed details and I had to rewind the film twice to make sure I caught turns in the plot. The film has minimal dialogue as our protagonist Dwight is very soft spoken and a lot of the film takes place with only him.
Saulnier, who started his career as a cinematographer, composes some pretty beautiful shots in a barren Virginian landscape. They way he approached the violence reminded me of another filmmaker, Ben Wheatly, in which what we get isn’t stylized, but rather highly realistic. There were some real shockingly violent moments in this film that just hit harder due to the realism.
Saulnier is a promising filmmaker that should be due some serious budget for his next film. That is the way Hollywood is going now. You have Josh Trank, Gareth Edwards, James Gunn, and Rian Johnson all at the helm of big franchises. It’s only a matter of time before a talent such as Saulnier gets his due and if it is anything like Blue Ruin, I’m going to like it.
4/5