"Revenge, at first though sweet, bitter ere long back on itself recoils." - John Milton, Paradise Lost

Killing has become so routine in movies today that no one blinks an eye when half a dozen people are slaughtered in the space of thirty seconds. Not that many people die in so short a time in Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin, however, but the violence is, as the director himself describes it, "brutal, shocking and disturbing." The main character, Dwight (Macon Blair) is an inept bumbler but one who is driven to exact revenge for his parents murder, a decision that leads to many and varied dead ends, both literal and figurative. Though Dwight is not an especially sympathetic protagonist and is more often than not, an object of laughter, his presence throughout the film is captivating with Blair's performance superbly capturing his emotionless banality.

Set in rural Virginia, we know little of Dwight's background and there are no extraneous sub-plots, one-liners, fatherly mentors, or love affairs to distract us from finding out. He is not mentally ill, bullied in school, or a man seething with anger, but a lonely and isolated individual doing what is expected of him in a society where violence is equated with manhood. When we first meet Dwight, he is a long-haired, disheveled, and generally unkempt-looking individual who you would probably want to avoid if he was walking behind you late at night. Down on his luck, he sleeps in a rusty old blue Pontiac that looks about as scruffy as he does, eats food out of garbage dumps, and sneaks into people's homes to take a shower.

We only find the cause of his present state when a supportive policewoman tells him that Carl Cleland (Brent Werzner),the man who was in prison for killing his parents has just been released after serving many years. Revenge is swift and bloody when Dwight follows the newly-freed man into the men's room at a bar and stabs him to death with a knife, an attack that leaves no doubt that stabbing someone in the throat produces lots of blood. Unthinkingly leaving his registered car at the scene of the crime, Dwight, now clean shaven and looking like any suburban businessman, knows that he has opened up a war between families and that his sister Sam (Amy Hargreaves) will be targeted by the rest of the Cleland clan, stereotypically good ol' boys.

The Cleland's decide not to call the police but choose to keep the feud "in house," forcing Dwight to send Sam and her two small children out of town, while he waits for the boys to arrive and they don't let him down. Though he somehow manages to escape after overpowering brother Teddy (Kevin Kolack) and locking him in the trunk of his car, he has an arrow in his leg that he tries to remove it himself with much moaning and groaning. Finally relenting, he lets the doctors finish the job at the nearest hospital (one wonders how many patients the doctors treat with arrows in their legs because they curiously don't ask any questions).

Dwight knows that he needs weapons, however, if he is to stay alive and contacts Ben (Devin Ratray, Buzz in Home Alone),a friend from high school and the rest of the film unfolds in an unpredictable, but quietly riveting manner. Winner of the FIPRESCI award at Cannes last year, Blue Ruin is an intense character study that, in essence, is a cautionary tale. While it doesn't glamorize violence, it has enough of it to make us take notice. Though the Bible (Exodus 21:24) tells us that we should take an "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot," Gandhi's response that "an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind" seems to be more the point that Saulnier is making.

.... astonishingly comes from an almost-unknown director starring almost-unknown actors .... AND IS IN COLOR TO BOOT. FILM NOIRE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD! Jeremy Saulnier, the writer and director, essentially is putting on a film clinic here, and it is a dandy. For those of us who may, over time, have forgotten that a great many diverse elements go into a feature film, and that it is entirely possibly produce spellbinding entertainment by merely getting SOME of these elements right, not necessarily all of them at once.

In Blue Ruin, leaving aside the odd storyline (something about an illicit love affair which goes horribly, horribly, wrong and develops consequences); and leaving aside the lack of "Hollywood" star power (which, in truth, you will not miss at all),this film soars to the heights based on 3 simple things: a script so tight that it squeaks, in fact there is barely any dialog at all in the first 20 minutes but your eyes will be glued to the screen nonetheless; cinematography that captures the slightest nuance, from the blinking light of an answering machine to a hi-velocity long-distance bullet smashing a skull just a second after you hear the shot; and direction so perfect (as I said) that, if the credits said "Coen Brothers," you would have no trouble believing it. (Lead Macon Blair does an AMAZING job playing a wimp who seemingly finds his inner Jason Bourne, and he even LOOKS like Javier Bardem's lost Anglo younger brother -- how weird is that?) This film is a treat to be savored. If Hollywood ever woke up and smelled the coffee -- realized that quality films could be done LIKE THIS without the formulaic garbage, for example, of a TAKEN 2 -- history might well record that BLUE RUIN was the beginning of a trend, perhaps even the "nextgen" of film-making, and heralded many more quality productions like it that were to come. One can always hope...

BLUE RUIN is a fine revenge thriller of the type that you thought America couldn't make anymore. These low-fi films are the opposite of the bloated and glossy Hollywood-style blockbuster and all the better for it. The film I can most liken it to is THE ROVER, a similar low-key Aussie story about the path of revenge and the unusual outcomes that one must face when embarking down it.

To say too much about the plot of BLUE RUIN would be to spoil it, so I won't. What I will say is that this is a slow paced and spare film that keeps you gripped throughout, including in the moments where not much happens. It has a drive and consistency that makes it work. The suspense keeps you hooked to the ensuing events and the violence, when it comes, is brief but extremely hard-hitting. A squad of naturalistic performances enhance a film in which realism is key, and the result is one of the freshest American thrillers to be made in years.