‘Blue Ruin’

Brace yourself before watching “Blue Ruin,” indie cinematographer/writer/director Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to his clever 2007 horror-comedy  “Murder Party.”

The opening scenes introduce us to a bearded vagrant named Dwight (Macon Blair), who lives in his car, squats in people’s homes to bath in their tubs, and scavenges through garbage cans for food.

He appears to have been at this lifestyle long enough to have developed a routine. When a policewoman approaches his car one morning and brings him to the station, that routine is shattered with news that the man convicted of murdering Dwight’s parents years earlier is going to be released from prison.

Dwight takes immediate action. He acquires a knife (after failing to steal a gun), and high tails it from Rehoboth Beach, DE back to his hometown in Virginia. Once he arrives and tracks down the released killer, the first domino falls. Once that first domino falls… well, you know how dominos work.

This is as stripped down, dark and dirty as it gets, a taut revenge drama tinted with pitch-black humor and brutal humanity drawn from questionable characters, all reminiscent of Joel and Ethan Coen’s debut feature, “Blood Simple.” This is particularly true in the way Saulnier allows suspense to build and give, build and give, until it explodes in a flash of violence on screen

“Blue Ruin” is one of the best thrillers you’re likely to see because it knows that when it comes to revenge, it never turns out quite the way you hoped. Revenge is messy, and so are the events depicted in this film. Dwight ‘s blood-paved path takes us through the bare nerves and tendons of human desperation and retribution.

★★★★ (out of four)