{"id":139152,"date":"2014-04-21T00:01:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T07:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/?p=139152"},"modified":"2014-02-09T09:19:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T16:19:46","slug":"blue-ruin-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/2014\/04\/21\/blue-ruin-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Ruin Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><strong>BLUE RUIN<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Radius TWC-Radius<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Grade: \u00a0C+<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Director: \u00a0Jeremy Saulnier<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Screenplay: Jeremy Saulnier<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Cast: \u00a0Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson, Brent Werzner, Stacy Rock, Sidn\u00e9 Anderson<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Screened at: \u00a0Review 2, NYC, 2\/6\/14<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Opens: \u00a0April 25, 2014<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Don\u2019t look for much of the color blue in this gothic melodrama: the term \u201cblue ruin\u201d means \u201cdesolation,\u201d or \u201cutter despondency.\u201d \u00a0Such is the manner of the movie\u2019s principal character, Dwight (Macon Blair), who is a wreck from the first time we see him until the story\u2019s logical conclusion. \u00a0In one scene he tells his sister, Sam (Amy Hargreaves), \u00a0that he\u2019s not used to talking, and we in the audience believe him. \u00a0He mumbles, he\u2019s phlegmatic, he\u2019s mysterious and self-destructive. \u00a0At the same time he is bent on revenge and believes that he will be protecting his sister if only he can kill the fellow who liquidated his parents seemingly for having an affair with the murderer\u2019s wife.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The camera almost never leaves the Dwight\u2019s face, accentuating every wide-eyed stare, capturing his every emotion&#8211;not too difficult since his feelings are reflected by anything from a poker face to a poker face with big, scared eyes. \u00a0We see everything from Dwight\u2019s point of view and, given that, we cannot necessarily root for him to get back at the killer because any execution-style murder will lead inevitably to the targeting of his sister and her two young daughters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>While this film, which was picked up by the Cannes Film Festival, looks fairly original, at base it\u2019s predictable. \u00a0What\u2019s more, the suspense, such as there is, is manifested principally from a good soundtrack. \u00a0But Dwight is non-talkative and non-emotional to the point of audience exasperation, the scenes are shot almost completely in the dark, and Dwight\u2019s plot to exact an eye for an eye is burdened with some dumb errors which look as though they will inevitably lead to his own demise and perhaps the death of his estranged family. \u00a0The most discomforting scenes find Dwight pulling an arrow from his leg in excruciating pain and inflicting a mortal blow on one gentleman by slashing his neck from ear to ear.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Dwight starts out as from a full-bearded dumpster diver who breaks into homes to take baths, sleeps in his car, and who one day is warned by a police officer and friend (Sidn\u00e9 Anderson) that Will Cleland (Brent Werzner), the confessed killer of Dwight\u2019s parents, has just been released from prison. \u00a0Little does she realize that she has set a revenge drama into motion as Dwight shaves his beard, cuts his hair, and takes off in his decrepit blue Pontiac for his hometown in the sticks of Virginia. \u00a0If we did not know that Virginia is a gun-friendly place, we are convinced of this in noting the battery of firearms in the home of Dwight\u2019s best friend, Devin Ratray (Ben Gaffney), who trains Dwight in the use of several rifles to see what is most comfortable to him.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As Will Cleland\u2019s redneck family goes after Dwight, the latter virtually guarantees their success by amateurish moves, among which is his refusal simply to shoot first and ask questions later. \u00a0As they say, you\u2019ve got to watch out for the quiet ones, yet Dwight is so inept, his conversations so flabby, that an audience cannot be blamed for wanting him out of the way.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Rated R. 90 minutes. \u00a0\u00a9 2014 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Story &#8211; C<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Acting &#8211; B-<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong>Technical &#8211; C+<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Overall &#8211; C+<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BLUE RUIN \u00a0 Radius TWC-Radius Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes Grade: \u00a0C+ Director: \u00a0Jeremy Saulnier Screenplay: Jeremy Saulnier Cast: \u00a0Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson, Brent Werzner, Stacy Rock, Sidn\u00e9 Anderson Screened at: \u00a0Review 2, NYC, 2\/6\/14 Opens: \u00a0April 25, 2014 Don\u2019t look [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-reviews"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blue Ruin Movie Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"BLUE RUIN \u00a0 Radius TWC-Radius Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. 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