It’s been a few years since Jeremy Saulnier’s horror-comedy mash-up Murder Party hit the festival circuit and won a lot of fans. Now he’s back with a riff on the revenge movie, immediately selected for the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
It’s rare that a genre film takes the chances of this one and succeeds so resoundingly.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2013
Blue Ruin 2013
It’s been a few years since Jeremy Saulnier’s horror-comedy mash-up Murder Party hit the festival circuit and won a lot of fans. Now he’s back with a riff on the revenge movie, immediately selected for the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. In the film’s solemn and quiet opening we meet Dwight, a homeless man who collects trash for money. After reading about the release of a double murderer he visibly transforms from dishevelled bearded bum into determined member of society. Pieces of his past are revealed through his unpredictable and violent actions. What follows is a deeply comic narrative of family retribution, white-trash psychosis and home invasion, set to the unsettling rhythms of a weapons-obsessed world. Deftly shot, with thoughtful widescreen compositions, this terrifically directed film combines the classic feuding-families set-up with the meditative veneer of a very clever contemporary art-house thriller. — Ant Timpson