Blue Ruin

The Coen Brothers have a lot to answer for when it comes to taut indie thrillers, their arresting debut Blood Simple showing what you can do with minimal budget and a decent script. But as director Jeremy Saulnier said in a recent interview, indie thrillers are currently thin on the ground. Having clearly traversed the festival circuit more than once, the average indie film - in Saulnier's words - is usually more “about people moving apartments, or painting a wall. They [are] really mundane. I like escapism, I like thrills and chills.” With what he's concocted in Blue Ruin, those thrills and chills are in rare abundance.

A bedraggled, unkempt fellow going by the name of Dwight (Macon Blair) has - for reasons unknown - become a vagrant, sleeping rough in his rust-bucket car, windows flecked with condensation as he gets moved along by ambling Police patrols on a seemingly regular basis. But a visit to a local prison to see the release of the man who wronged him changes all that. That evening, approaching his target in a dank sweat-soaked club, things go decidedly claret-coloured - though not in the slam-bang Hollywood sense. This is crime committed in a way that feels about as real as it should, dangerous, messy and truly frightening, without the wail of Police sirens even when flesh is being pierced by store-bought scalpels. It's from here on in that Dwight is on the run, being tracked down by the family of the man he's murdered, wholly unprepared for the slew of violence that unfolds in the wake of his ill-conceived plan.

As is the case with many indie films we're not spoon-fed a plot, the dots are there but the viewer needs to do the joining (least of all with a bit of mumbled dialogue in its early scenes, though anyone who's waded through the murky-accented backwaters of True Detective and its ilk should have no issues whatsoever). However Blue Ruin's dots are deceptively simple, it being a pure revenge thriller in its leanest, meanest terms. The fact that a jet-black comic streak runs through its blood-red veins means the influence of a Coen or two never feels far away, though admittedly it's a little unfair to be touting Saulnier as the next big thing in the thriller genre when he's hardly had time to stretch his legs (pigeon-holing can be a dangerous thing - see M. Night Shyamalan for further reference of building up/knocking down). It does a fine job of its visual effects too; knife wounds, bullet holes and even a crossbow injury are all covered in gruesome close-up, adding a sense of gut-wrenching reality to proceedings without over-egging the meaty pudding.

In fact writing this review has made me want to watch it again, which is never a bad thing where any film is concerned - it's done its job and then some. As with fellow thriller-baiting gorehound Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers), Saulnier should hopefully go on to expand his repertoire and show us he's got much more up his sleeve to show us - on the strength of Blue Ruin, he deserves a fair crack of the cinematic whip.