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
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