Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier leads us down the darkness of his Southern Gothic revenge flick Blue Ruin with great film-making precision.
Skinny little nobody Dwight Evans sets out to avenge his murdered parents only to find improvising isn't the best way to go as he gets in way over his head. Saulnier channels the Coen Brothers and Cormac McCarthy, with an uneasy slow-burning tension that occasionally erupts in spurts of violence that feels uncomfortably closer to reality than most films in it's genre. Dwight is a cold and distant figure that we wouldn't know if not for the people that nervously surround him and that's where we find what little comfort the film offers. It could be a pure bloodbath but the film knows precisely when to let the violence in and when to let the pressure cook, proving itself to be a lot more clever than one might suspect. A finely shot, hauntingly effective thriller that hypnotizes with it's well-paced reveals and off-beat humor.
Skinny little nobody Dwight Evans sets out to avenge his murdered parents only to find improvising isn't the best way to go as he gets in way over his head. Saulnier channels the Coen Brothers and Cormac McCarthy, with an uneasy slow-burning tension that occasionally erupts in spurts of violence that feels uncomfortably closer to reality than most films in it's genre. Dwight is a cold and distant figure that we wouldn't know if not for the people that nervously surround him and that's where we find what little comfort the film offers. It could be a pure bloodbath but the film knows precisely when to let the violence in and when to let the pressure cook, proving itself to be a lot more clever than one might suspect. A finely shot, hauntingly effective thriller that hypnotizes with it's well-paced reveals and off-beat humor.
4 Pontiacs out of 5
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