Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

sergicaballeroalsina A brilliant title for a great film that develops a casual and contemporary noir plot in record time. Pure gender with very intense rhythm, original and atypical. Crude and cold though with small manifestations of black humor. It uses a well-known resource: the presence of the blue color in practically all shots, perhaps in a less poetic way than in Kieslowski's Trois couleurs: Bleu, but equally important for the message of its aesthetics, of its atmosphere. It found an interesting way to introduce the protagonist. A charming portrait of a hero who does not oppose the hectic succession of events. That does not deny its destiny. He accepts the events. The film boasts of a certain weakness by the criminal clumsiness, the amateur violence and the improvised revenge although very plausible. This movie works. And very well. You can bet on it. Anyway it is so fast that even if you do not like it will be over before you know it.

z28rikard First of all I have to raise my hands to Macon Blair. What an astonishing performance. And what a debut for both him and for Jeremy Saulnier. The first 15 minutes are as good as any Ridley Scott production.You get the Thelma & Louise feel going.... The filtered light, the scenery, the close-ups, the simple but strong plot evolves to an astonishing masterpiece.All of it perfection. I really like the Anti-hero theme in this. I have always rooted for the underdog all my life. And here we have it on film. Lucky me, lucky us. I have a feeling that we have the Tarantino of the 2010 and on, here. Just check out Green Room and you will see that this is not a fluke.Good luck to this film-team. Cause they are sticking together for a long time, is my guess.God speed everyone.

Coventry Forget everything you learned from Charlie Bronson in the "Death Wish" film series, as well as in countless of other low and big budgeted vigilante/revenge movies… Years and years' worth of sentiments of unprocessed hatred and rage do not make you invincible and certainly cannot prepare you to extract the perfect act of vengeance. When you're an average guy/girl, and fundamentally a good-hearted person, the urge for revenge will cause for you to make stupid mistakes, make you feel utmost miserable and is guaranteed to get you severely hurt or even killed! That is basically the main message/moral of Jeremy Saulnier's "Blue Ruin" and it's a downright fantastic accomplishment if I may say so! Never before I've witnessed a film that is so violent and suspenseful in terms of content, but simultaneously so saddening and melodramatic in terms of atmosphere. "Blue Ruin" is a very bizarre indie production, to say the least. Writer/director Saulnier raised the budget via crowd- funding, and even though he gathered the fairly admirable sum of approximately $1.000.000 it's still a very rudimentary and minimalist thriller with few characters, set-pieces, stunts or make-up effects. What it does feature, and plenty of it, is slow- brooding tension, in-depth character drawings, long but uncomfortable and thought-provoking silences and melancholy! Lots and lots of melancholy… Dwight lives like an unclean and unshaven hermit in his ramshackle old Pontiac car since many years. When he hears that the murderer of his parents is about to get released from prison, the only thought left in his head is killing him. He waits at the prison gates for Wade Cleland to get picked up by his family and grabs the first possibility he gets to stab him to death in a men's room. However, this wildly impulsive act was so amateurish that Dwight has now endangered the only family he still has; his sister and her children. The rest of the film masterfully illustrates how Dwight continues to sink deeper and deeper into a downward spiral linked caused by the complications of his urge for retaliation. With all its long periods of nothing really happening and the shortage of dialogues, "Blue Ruin" is actually a sort of meditation session. A meditation on violence, bathing in shades of blue and depicting the true human nature: vulnerable and dumb. As said, Saulnier definitely makes the most out of the few pieces of scenery and limited cast of characters that he has available. Dwight's Pontiac car, for example, is a very significant piece of scenery. It's old and decrepit and I was amazed every single time that it still drove, but indeed it is the best vehicle imaginable to fit our protagonist's persona. The supportive characters are astounding as well, like Dwight's nihilistic but surprisingly intelligent childhood friend Ben with his rather disturbing views on gun-ownership, or the entire Cleland family who are basically quite marginal but also admirably loyal. Last but certainly not least, I feel somewhat obligated to end this user-comment with a personal apology towards writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. When I watched his debut feature "Murder Party" several years ago, I really hated it. That is still okay, I guess, but I also impolitely described Mr. Saulnier as an untalented and uninspired amateur director who probably shouldn't quit his regular job in order to purchase his dream of becoming a famous horror director. Well, I have been wrong before many times in my life and don't have any problem whatsoever with admitting that I judged too soon. Based on the (much larger budgeted) "Green Room", but especially this truly excellent "Blue Ruin", I can safely say that I was wrong.

AT 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?