Review of Blue Ruin (2014) by Paul B — 12 Aug 2014

The year 2014 has brought me a lot of good movies so far, but nothing quite like Blue Ruin. Few independent projects with such modest funding are so ambitiously stripped down, so convincingly performed, so unbearably tense, so elegantly simple, so beautifully shot, and so poignant. This is one of the best dramatic thrillers to come about in a long time, one that practices a great deal of restraint to display so many grim realities involving violence, grief, hatred, and revenge, without ever becoming indulgent or preachy. It's a film that assuredly deserves to be seen, and counted among the best not only 2014 has to offer, but one of the hands down best independent dramatic thrillers. Period.

Never have I witnessed such an explosion of talent into a theatric directoral debut since Reservoir Dogs, sporting enough eloquently photographed violence to make Tarantino himself envious.