Unto others

Blue Ruin

Crit

Yeah, if I were going to avenge myself against the guy who killed my family, that's probably how I'd go about it, too: half-assedly. No, to be fair, I wouldn't even be as effective as Dwight (Macon Blair), who--trained by his time as a Dumpster diver living in his titular Pontiac--actually does have a generally systematic way of going about things. But he neglects certain key elements, too: that the killer he kills comes from a family of conscienceless killers, whereas he comes from a family that consists of a sister and two vulnerable nieces. And that pulling an arrow out of his thigh not only is going to hurt like hell but . . . well, is nigh onto impossible. There's a lot of Coen here, but writer-director-cameraman Jeremy Saulnier, who made the film for less than half a million bucks, has plenty of his own thing going on too. A gem.