perica-43151 This is a simple movie, yet very effective and original. With an ironic twist, it has a powerful message that will make you think. It is short and very watchable, and quite memorable. Highly recommended

madameminty The movie presents a realistic plot with realistic characters, saying realistic things, for such a plot. A completely incompetent, petty man vs the world. It's only deep if you try hard making it deep; otherwise it's just unimaginably bland. The only tension fueled by nigh-comedic awkwardness and violence. If you don't find awkwardness and embarrassment entertaining or enlightening (?!), if you don't like how it's used as a cheap substitute for proper drama, just skip it.

redrobin62-321-207311 Jeremy Saulnier is definitely one writer/director I need to keep my eye on. I saw Green Room about 4-5 months ago, and I was pleased. Same here with Blue Ruin. Now, I await Red Corpuscles and Yellow River with great expectation. (Actually, I just made up those last two "color" films as it seems like that would be a good trend for Jeremy to embark upon). But I digress.Blue Ruin took me off guard quite a few times. I like movies which don't telegraph their endings, and this was one of them. The acting was superb all around. I do need a beating for not recognizing Jan Brady in the film. My, how she has grown. And she was my favourite Brady, too.Being homeless myself, I related well to the opening of the movie. It seemed authentic, almost as if the director himself had spent many a night sleeping beneath the stars while waiting for his Hollywood closeup.I gave the film 8 because I simply wanted people to get a glimpse of reality, Jeremy Saulnier style. To be honest, the plot and some of the behaviours in the flick seemed far-fetched. Believable? Well, I don't know. Really seemed like Jeremy was taking liberties, story-wise. Still, it is recommended viewing, especially to see what the grandson of Peter Lorre is up to these days. (Doesn't the guy who plays Dwight, Macon Blair, look like Peter Lorre?) Kinda does, to me.

tomgillespie2002 During Blue Ruin's festival run in 2013, I recall hearing whispers of a new visionary in the vein of the Coen brothers and Quentin Tarantino who was unafraid to shock and rattle the audience with sudden explosions of violence combined with jet-black humour. While Jeremy Saulnier's second feature, following 2007's Murder Party, certainly has elements of the Coen's claustrophobic neo-noir work, the Tarantino comparisons are completely misjudged. Blue Ruin is very much the work of a director sculpting his own vision, and one that will keep you glued to your seat as the film twists and turns, deliberately dodging nearly every trope of the revenge drama.While most revenge flicks begin with an act of violence that will lead its scarred protagonist on their journey of righting a wrong, Blue Ruin's initial hook is that it opens slowly and ominously, with a dirty, bearded man breaking into a home to take a bath. When the family arrive home, he flees into the neighbourhood naked, stealing clothes from a nearby washing line. Ragged and apparently half- starved, the man stumbles back to his home - a hollowed-out blue car (the 'blue ruin' of the title) in the middle of a field. This, as it turns out, is Dwight, our great hero, played with astonishing subtlety by Macon Blair, and a visit from the police quickly sets him on a vastly different path. The man responsible for something horrific in Dwight's past has been released from prison, so he heads back to his hometown seeking revenge.The revenge is not the final goal of the film, as this is carried out early on in particularly gruesome and realistic fashion. Instead, it is the repercussions that place Dwight and his estranged family in a situation they can either flee from or face head-on. The victim of Dwight's act has his own family, only they are all gun- wielding criminals, and the lack of news coverage of the incident can only mean one thing - they have decided to take matters into their own hands. Although they are rarely seen throughout the course of the film, you get the sense that they are never far behind, forcing Dwight to seek help from and old childhood friend, ex-Army good ol' boy Ben (Devin Ratray - who I only realised after the film had finished played the bullying Buzz in Home Alone (1990)), and his arsenal of firearms.While it may sound like the film veers off into the realms of gun fantasy, it really doesn't. The relative ease in which Dwight acquires weaponry only gives the film an underlying anti-gun message, and the scenes of bloody violence are certainly anything but pornographic. They are ugly and revolting, as are many of the film's characters, even the ones we're on the side of. Non-preachy themes aside, the main pleasures to be had with Blue Ruin are during its smaller moments. This is a film where a burst tyre or an accidentally self-inflicted knife wound to the hand don't simply provide an excuse for a set-piece, but pose serious problems for its antagonist. Despite the film moving at a slow pace for the most part, it's entirely nerve-jangling and almost scary, as it's almost impossible to guess where the movie may be heading. While I feel Saulnier's next slice of terror Green Room is a better film, this is only a sign of a director perfecting his craft.