DVD: Blue Ruin

Blue Ruin, the American thriller which won the coveted FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes last year, will amaze. It stars actors you don’t know, made by a director you don’t know yet Blue Ruin is proof of life beyond Hollywood: this is a tremendous independent film. We’re not talking something shot through an iPhone with one location. We’re talking an entertaining, incredibly smart and deftly-made story with heart, a message and memorable characters and scenes.

Macon Blair is Dwight, a long-haired vagrant who is nonetheless a careful person. He may scavenge to survive, but, as the story unfolds, he’s tested to the full when he finds the murderer of his parents is now free from prison. On the run, we soon see he is on the run to the ex-con, with tragic results.

It deserves its 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Directed and written by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier, getting Blue Ruin made, marketed and distributed was no doddle. He persisted, along with help from his wife and a talented team who believed in the film, to scrape enough money together to finish it. (In one interview he admitted they’d risked their children’s education fund to get the film to us, the viewing audience.) The result is worth it – and it deserves its 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Macon Blair, Amy Hargreaves (Homeland) and Devin Ratray (Nebraska) co-star in this tension-filled bag of surprises. If I wrote any more, I’d ruin Blue Ruin for you. Trust me that this is a film to see: I caught up with it recently and only wished I’d listened to my fellow critics to see it as soon as it came out. It’s that kind of film. Extra disc content here includes behind-the-scenes, camera tests and deleted scenes.