Blue Ruin

Dwight, an outsider living in a rundown Pontiac, discovers that his parents’ killer has been granted an early release from prison. He decides to return home to seek revenge and to protect his estranged family. Given that Dwight is inconspicuous, incompetent, and far from a professional killer, he carries out his plan in such a slow, chaotic, and clumsy fashion that, at one point, both parties in the conflict are unsure of what is going on ... In the context of events in the United States, where the frequency of incidents involving readily available weapons is increasing at an unimaginable pace, Jeremy Saulnier’s film takes on a new interpretive dimension. Despite being full of images of brutality, the filmmaker wants to avoid associations with the type of gore films made by Eli Roth. Filmed nearly entirely in Saulnier’s home state of Virginia, Blue Ruin has some scenes of situational humor, but the director has produced an atmospheric film that is largely a psychological thriller with art-house esthetics.

Anna Tatarska