Blue Ruin (2014)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There is a scene in Blue Ruin where Dwight (Macon Blair), a homeless man pursuing a personal vendetta he is ill-suited for, walks into a goods store after receiving a nasty arrow wound in a leg. He starts buying disinfectants, stitches, pincers, glue, and you think you've seen all this before.Cut to Dwight groaning as he fumbles with the wound trying to get the arrow out.Cut to Dwight limping into an ICU and collapsing to the ground.This bit of black humor encapsulates Blue Ruin: a clever, subversive little thriller which reminds me most of all of the Coens' debut Blood Simple, as inept characters stumble through poorly planned crimes with messy results.Blair is remarkable in the lead role; his Dwight is an interesting, unusual protagonist for the genre, basically the anti-Jason Bourne - an incompetent killer wrecked by memories of his past. Direction by Jeremy Saulnier is impeccable; the movie often shifts between taut action beats and unexpectedly funny moments, and it works.7,5/10

Content to live the life of a vagrant, a homeless man finds a reason to live as the man who murdered his parents is released from prison, but a spontaneous revenge plan has unintended consequences in this grim and gritty crime thriller. Macon Blair is solid in the lead role, playing a rather interesting character. His vagrancy life is utterly intriguing as he breaks into houses just to shower and eat but never to steal anything of any significance, and there is quite a dynamic at hand as the prison release injects new energy into his life, especially as his revenge plan succeeds, which leads to killer's family trying to kill Blair himself rather than report him to the police. The film does not do quite so well when it comes to secondary characters, most of whom thinking nothing of Blair dropping off and on the map, plus the game of cat and mouse that results eventually tires, however, the film remains atmospheric until the end thanks to a throbbing music score and thoughtful use of the colour blue (though the title is chiefly meant to mean complete and utter ruin). There is also a lot to like in what the film has to say about the inability of revenge to truly solve any problems. Indeed, all that revenge leads to here is a nightmarish never-ending cycle, and the film's choice to conclude with the camera focused on the youngest member of the killer's family feels both poetic as well as thematically fitting.

It is a curious piece, but a pleasing one. The auteur, Jeremy Saulnier, has roots in cinematography and it shows. While the visuals are deliberate at times and overly-filtered in general, the film has a beautifully polished quality to some pretty grainy and dire images at times. It is easy on the eyes - and what a relief to be allowed the pleasure of enjoying some long shots instead of the epileptic, Bay- esque staccato cutting that seems to be so prevalent these days.Speaking of outlandish budgets, this film was assembled for around $35 000 courtesy of Kickstarter, and to all those that contributed : feel pleased on money well-spent.Nothing terribly new here: a revenge odyssey and a passable thriller with the usual mixing-bowl pros and cons. But for $35k, a novice film-maker and a cast of un- and barely-knowns to achieve an award at Cannes and almost a million dollars at the domestic popcorn-store I feel compelled to give them a nod or two myself.The story involves a mysterious vagrant man who seemingly drifts through his days without causing anyone much bother. Yet upon finding out that his father's killer is being released from prison, he kicks into payback mode and briskly goes about executing (cough) a messy, committed, revenge killing. Somewhat botched (both himself and the attack) he realises that his actions have consequences on not just his personal safety, but an estranged sister and her kids too - his victim's family being the two- legs-and-your-heart-for-an-eye kinda folk. Things get progressively out of control as he tries to spirit his family to safety and offer himself up as restitution; but we all know it's never easy reasoning with armed criminal sociopaths. So everyone gets a bit carried away.It's taut - without ever being truly tense - but pleasingly the story moves. The acting is a mixed bag, mostly due to somewhat flimsy supporting characters, but the lead performance by Macon Blair (Dwight) is truly excellent. His soft features and placid expressions render him very hard to date (guess his age, not woo romantically) and his immersion into the role is impressive, especially given his extended screen-time makes him vulnerable to over-scrutiny. You never learn much about him, nor experience a bond, but he has a likable, authentic quality.Blair's performance, coupled with some stomach-churning realism, are the tent-poles of this picture. The violence is sporadic, explosive and explicit, but it's the suffering that certain characters endure which is effecting and accomplished in its presentation.The score is understated and appropriate and the outcome suitably bleak without being nihilistic, never quite delivering a devilish twist but swaying just far enough away from convention to keep one thinking longer than the first credits.Some have opined that Blue Ruin has elements of Tarantino and The Coen brothers - I'm inclined to disagree. Yes, their collective influence is residual in most independent film-making these days. But this movie doesn't orchestrate the stylish blood-shed of Tarantino's violence nor deliver the sly black humour that grouts the Coen body counts. If we must seek comparisons then I suggest back-track further left-field and compare works of Vincent Gallo and Arthur Penn. If you are a fan of either, or indeed both, their visionary output then sit yourself in front of Blue Ruin post-haste.Attempting to box this film does it a disservice. It is no masterpiece and its budget and story limitations are there to behold. Despite it's warts it entertains, engrosses and is something different. And for a movie which isn't an original, well - that's quite some trick isn't it?

It might be a bad habit of mine but I like to compare a movie to other movies I have seen. And I compare Blue Ruin to Child of God, another fabulous albeit very upsetting movie. Both movies have rather unknown actors in it, they were done using very little money, they have interesting stories and they are directed by people who have skills, so in this way they are the complete opposite of Nocturnal Animals. Without giving the plot away, Blue Ruin starts really slow with the main character appearing to be almost unlikable, sort of like the characters in a L.F.Celine story, but then the plot starts to develop and lucky for me, I went to the washroom before the movie started, because there was no way I would have missed even a minute of that splendid movie or Odin forbid, pause it.