Blue Ruin. (18.)
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier.
Staring Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Keven Kolak, Eve Plumb and David W. Thompson. 90 mins.
Blue Ruin is a classic, but conflicted, revenge thriller. It is mean and lean, pared down to the essentials and, on one or two occasions, starkly brutal. But it is also messily human, as if the filmmakers had been hit by a shortage of archetypal revenger and bad guy figures and have been forced to press gang some bit part players into the main roles; they don’t quite know what they are supposed to be doing and come up with new and novel interpretations of the usual scenes. This is especially true of the main character who, once shaved, bears a passing resemblance to Nathan Lane.
When we first meet him Dwight (Blair) is a bearded hobo living on the fringes, rummaging in the bins for food and sleeping in his rust bucket car. Only when a kindly police officer brings him into the station to break the news that the man who killed his parents is to be released early from prison, does he pull himself together and head off to Virginia to get justice.
This is Saulnier’s second film as writer, cinematographer and director and though I wouldn’t say it marked the rise of a major talent - it doesn’t have the swagger or the piercing emotional truth - he has done a bang up job. He gets you right into the moment, generates lots of tension and draws great performances from all his cast. He writes good strong truthful roles and then makes sure that they don’t outstay their welcome; he cuts them down before they become oversized. Macon Blair, who has been friends with Saulnier since childhood, is the stand out in the lead role.
As a revenge thriller Blue Ruin seems to deal honesty and fairly with the subject. Of course, violent retribution is never the simple salve that movies present it as, yet the film doesn’t deny that even when the consequence are messy and terrifying, at a base level bloody revenge provides an undeniable brute satisfaction, a certainty in a world of moral relativism. Similarly the film gives you something more thoughtful than the standard violent thriller; but still gives you all the visceral tension and release as well.
Blue Ruin. (18.)
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier.
Staring Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Keven Kolak, Eve Plumb and David W. Thompson. 90 mins.
Blue Ruin is a classic, but conflicted, revenge thriller. It is mean and lean, pared down to the essentials and, on one or two occasions, starkly brutal. But it is also messily human, as if the filmmakers had been hit by a shortage of archetypal revenger and bad guy figures and have been forced to press gang some bit part players into the main roles; they don’t quite know what they are supposed to be doing and come up with new and novel interpretations of the usual scenes. This is especially true of the main character who, once shaved, bears a passing resemblance to Nathan Lane.
When we first meet him Dwight (Blair) is a bearded hobo living on the fringes, rummaging in the bins for food and sleeping in his rust bucket car. Only when a kindly police officer brings him into the station to break the news that the man who killed his parents is to be released early from prison, does he pull himself together and head off to Virginia to get justice.
This is Saulnier’s second film as writer, cinematographer and director and though I wouldn’t say it marked the rise of a major talent - it doesn’t have the swagger or the piercing emotional truth - he has done a bang up job. He gets you right into the moment, generates lots of tension and draws great performances from all his cast. He writes good strong truthful roles and then makes sure that they don’t outstay their welcome; he cuts them down before they become oversized. Macon Blair, who has been friends with Saulnier since childhood, is the stand out in the lead role.
As a revenge thriller Blue Ruin seems to deal honesty and fairly with the subject. Of course, violent retribution is never the simple salve that movies present it as, yet the film doesn’t deny that even when the consequence are messy and terrifying, at a base level bloody revenge provides an undeniable brute satisfaction, a certainty in a world of moral relativism. Similarly the film gives you something more thoughtful than the standard violent thriller; but still gives you all the visceral tension and release as well.
