Review of Red White & Blue (2010) by Greg T — 18 Jul 2012

As the title suggests, there's a commentary on the state of the States in this dark, sleazy and ultimately horrifying drama, and it's not difficult to see that there's something very, very rotten at its core in the opening minutes, as we follow young woman Erica from slimy pool hall to grimy foursome with three young band-members she meets for the first time.

Erica is a shameless hedonist, who doesn't do friends and doesn't fuck the same guy twice. She's also, understandably, a mess, but when she meets her neighbourhood weirdo Nate (played with creepy geniality by the excellent Noah Taylor) she may just find a chance at redemption and maybe even love.

Though Nate is a genuine whackjob - charming Erica with tales of animal torture and going at a potential rapist in a toilet with a claw hammer - he may not be the biggest threat in Erica's future, and when her sordid recent past comes back to haunt her it sets in motion a series of events that are at once disturbing and brutal, but ultimately just rather sad.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE is a real slow-burner, revealing its shocks with care and making an effort to make the viewer at least understand, if not empathise, with its characters. There's a sense of real anguish and loneliness here - see Erica's desperate scrubbing of her skin after another one night stand, or Nate's howl of incomprehension when he looks in the trunk - and it sets the scene impressively for the carnage that follows.

Props also to Marc Senter, playing one of Erica's conquests who ends up really wishing he hadn't gone there, who has to deal with some of the film's rawest emotions, and does so well. This is a very strong film, there's no doubt, and what it finds squirming in America's underbelly - a world of abuse, state-sponsored violence, hopelessness, and lingering and unavoidable emotional damage, is a world that's difficult to shake off.

An alarming and disturbing conclusion.