X
- 2014
- R
- RADiUS-TWC
- 1 h 30 m
- 2014
- R
- RADiUS-TWC
- 1 h 30 m
Summary A beach bum finds his quiet life upended by dreadful news and sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of revenge. Proving an inept assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Directed By: Jeremy Saulnier
Written By: Jeremy Saulnier
- 2014
- R
- RADiUS-TWC
- 1 h 30 m
- 2014
- R
- RADiUS-TWC
- 1 h 30 m
Blue Ruin
78
7.4
Where to Watch
Summary A beach bum finds his quiet life upended by dreadful news and sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of revenge. Proving an inept assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family.
Directed By: Jeremy Saulnier
Written By: Jeremy Saulnier
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
78
88% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
12% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
78
88% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
12% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
This smart crime story from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier avoids wading into the waters of righteousness that drown many violent movies.
It’s easily the most suspenseful American film of the year, a thriller that feels like lightning across a quiet night sky; sudden, terrifying, and excitingly singular.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 150 User Ratings
7.4
82% Positive
123 Ratings
123 Ratings
16% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
2% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 150 User Ratings
7.4
82% Positive
123 Ratings
123 Ratings
16% Mixed
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
2% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Hate begets hate in this smart, incredibly tense, dramatic, yet darkly funny revenge thriller from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. With a star making performance from Macon Blair, Blue Ruin is a fantastic showcase for both the men in front of and behind the camera.
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This movie is a prime example of when giving one man the opportunity to execute his vision on his own, results in a cinematic masterpiece. This story is personal, and you connect with every single character that appears on screen trhoughout the film. Visceral, serious, and absolutely terrifying at times, they don't tell stories like this too often.
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A cunning, suspenseful thriller that bears comparison to the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple, Blue Ruin is an impossible-to-ignore calling card from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Hollywood awaits.
Appearing in almost every frame of Blue Ruin, Blair – who previously starred in "The Man From Orlando" and writer/director Jeremy Saulnier’s first feature, "Murder Party" – owns this film.
Blue Ruin is an uneven film, and there are slip-ups along the way, but the tension that settles in slowly like a low-grade fever keeps you with it.
Blue Ruin is more artful and evocative than any recent revenge picture, but it’s still drivel.
This film is a brilliant example of a slow, steady, and violent revenge story. Each shot had me at the edge of my seat. the ending was well done. The main actor Macon Blair, is very believable actor. Also want to point out, Jeremy Saulnier, wrote, directed, and did the cinematography for this film, in which he did a fantastic job on. Another great mystery thriller to add to my list!
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This is a crime thriller film which covers themes including vengeance, vigilantism and vagrancy. This is a very violent and bloody film from relatively early on and I felt in the dark in terms of the background of the plot. The main plot is far from original but it has some good characterisation, with a surprising amount of human fragility and not in the way you may expect.
Cast wise, Macon Blair plays the main character, Dwight. He is quite an unassuming person, a fairly average joe type, not exactly a Bruce Willis or Jean Claude Van Damme type. I thought he played the role well. Other cast members include Kevin Kolack as Teddy Cleland and Eve Plumb as Kris Cleland. There wasn't anything about the cast that especially stood out to me, so I don't think I can say much about that, other than that I wasn't familiar with the cast members.
Content wise, the film is pretty violent and really quite bloody, with various scenes happening quite suddenly, thus its quite shocking. Bloody injuries include blood spurts and the like. Flesh is depicted, if briefly, so you need a relatively strong stomach - this isn't for the overly squeamish!. Strong language is used at times and more generally the film is quite dark and edgy in tone and thus could be quite frightening and disturbing, especially to younger viewers. Due to this, its been given a 15 rating.
There is an element of voyeurism at play, as we see what the main character, Dwight, is doing in often confined and dark places, as if the camera is held by someone trying to document everything, in a found footage sort of a way, so there is some relatively jerky camerawork present at times. While watching it, I felt quite edgy as it was hard to know where the next attack or move might come from and who may be responsible, so its fair to say that its got quite a tense and volatile tone to it. It had the feel, at times, of a Western shoot out type of a film. Some parts of the plot seemed pretty unlikely too - there was almost a surreal sense to it, a somewhat unsettling one at that. There were some surprisingly jumpy moments present, when things happened seemingly out of nowhere which took me by surprise. The chronology of events seemed a bit unusual too.
It was reasonably good but I'm not sure its particularly memorable, so I suppose I'm undecided really. It wasn't one of the best films I've seen this year but it wasn't totally without merit either- some people may enjoy it more than others and if you don't like bloody violent films then I'd recommend you stay away from this but otherwise I'll leave it to yourself to decide whether you should see this or not.
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Production Company
The Lab of Madness,
Film Science,
Neighborhood Watch,
Paradise City
Release Date Apr 25, 2014
Duration 1 h 30 m
Rating R
Tagline Revenge comes home
Awards
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Gijón International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Virginia Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
