Saturday November 29th on Netflix. This is a good, solid no frills revenge film from Jeremy Saulnier who wrote and directed the picture. This is a minimalist film with a relatively unknown cast and a straight forward plot. The protagonist is Dwight (played by Macon Blair), a man who's living the life of bum out of his car on the beach in Delaware. Dwight lives hand to mouth and is prone to break into a vacationing homeowner's house to get a shower, hot meal and a change of clothes. One day while sleeping in his car, a policewoman rolls up on him and asks him to come into the station. It turns out, the man who killed his parents, Wade Cleland, is getting paroled form a Virginia penitentiary. So Dwight gathers his things and sets off for home.
Dwight drives to the penitentiary and follows Cleland and his family to a roadside bar where they will apparently celebrate Wade's release from the state. Dwight manages to get into the establishment unnoticed and waits for Wade in the bathroom (guy's gotta pee right?). Dwight ambushes Wade in the john and kills him. He then cuts himself while trying to disable the Cleland vehicle only to realize that he lost his own car keys in the bathroom struggle. Dwight's got to get out fast and he opts to take the Cleland vehicle with the flat tire. He doesn't get very far when he realizes theirs a teenage boy in the backseat. He ditches the car on the side of the road and makes his getaway on foot.
Dwight gets cleaned up and manages to get to his sister Sam's (Amy Hargreaves) house. This is where we learn that Dwight more or less just skipped town after his parents murder and trial. Dwight tells Sam that he killed Cleland but when the news of the murder isn't on the news, he realizes that the Clelands never called police and could be looking for him considering they have his vehicle. They may not know where Dwight is but they can find Sam. Dwight gets Sam and her daughters out of town and lies in wait for the Clelands to show up. Which is exactly what they do. In the shoot out, Dwight wounds and captures one of the Clelands but takes a crossbow bolt to the leg.
Dwight enlists the aid of an old high school buddy, now a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ben (played by Devin Ratray) for the use of a weapon. Dwight questions Wade's brother Teddy at gunpoint (Teddy explains that their mother was having an affair with Dwight's father and it was the senior Cleland who murdered Dwight's parent not Wade. The elder Cleland had cancer and Wade did the time) Teddy turns the table on Dwight and gets the gun only to be shot by Ben. The funny part (in a dark comedic way) is that Ben chides Dwight for being 2 yards away and missing his target. Ben then tells Dwight that if he's going to kill the Clelands, it's best not to start monologuing.
Dwight tracks down the Cleland residence and hides out until they arrive. The Clelands live like standard stereotypical rednecks. Out in the woods, kind of off the grid or at least on the fringes of it and huge proponents of the 2nd amendment. They've got guns al over the place. When the Clelands arrive home, they're surprised by Dwight. Then Dwight starts to monologue which allows the youngest Cleland to shoot and wound Dwight but Dwight manages to disarm the teenage boy (who was in the back seat when Dwight took the car in an earlier scene). The boy, 15 years old, is Dwight's half brother. The product of his father's affair. Dwight tells the boy to get out. The Cleland matriarch (played by none other than Eve Plumb, that's Jan Brady!) grabs a Mac10 from under a recliner (the Clelands were probably waiting for a ATF raid due to Obama was coming to take their guns away, another redneck myth) and opens up on Dwight. After the dust has settled, the Clelands are dead and Dwight has been severely wounded. That's where the film ends.
As I mentioned above, this is a pretty straight forward story. There's not a lot of dialogue or character development. It's a straight revenge film. Its gritty, dark and gets right to the point. Even when Dwight learns of his father's affair, it doesn't change much, other than sparing his half brother. Dwight knew this probably going to be a no return trip.This is another film that is not for everyone, as it can sometimes move a little slowly and when there's violence, it's really violent. But I think that's where Saulnier capture the reality of situation. Exacting revenge takes time and it can be slow. Death by violence is a bloody mess. Blue Ruin got a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and I can see why. It never got a wide release but it's out there now and I recommend it though it's not for everyone. I look forward to Saulnier's next project.
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