Blue Ruin (2013) - Gun madness and circular violence fuels Saulnier's dark indie thriller

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A strikingly designed, chilling poster for Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin

When a convicted double murderer is released from jail, our protagonist decides to leave his life as a drifter with a steely determination: To kill the man he is convinced killed his own parents.

From this basic premise, Blue Ruin weaves a messy situation, and the title seems to point to the collective hole of hatred, thirst for vengeance and bitterness that draws many of the characters here into its abyss, - while also being a reference to the Pontiac that serves as the home for the protagonist.
The film is written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room (2015)). It is fascinatingly simple and well shot (also by Saulnier), so that landscapes at first seem to have been pressed flat just to later attain a certain depth.
SPOILER The story seems like it may have been inspired by a real story of a family massacre. Just as in Saulnier's following film Green Room, guns and talk of them takes up significant space, while character information and sympathetic insights into the egotistical, bloodthirsty protagonist remain scarce. This inhibits Blue Ruin from becoming truly suspenseful, and despite its admirable qualities, it ultimately becomes forgettable to me because I feel like an intruder in its universe.

Related post:

Jeremy Saulnier: Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

Saulnier and Blair give an interview about the film at the Locarno Film Festival in 2013 here

Cost: 420k $ - 1 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 0.9 mil. $
= Somwhere between minor flop and huge flop
[Blue Ruin premiered 17 May (Cannes) and runs 90 minutes. Saulnier and producer-star-composer Macon Blair (The Florida Projects (2017)) were getting disillusioned with their possible futures as filmmakers and wanted to make Blue Ruin as a last film together. Funding came together partly through a crowdfunding campaign asking for 35k $ and Saulnier's savings. The film was inspired by revenge movies and current, upsetting violent crimes that Saulnier has stated "made me miserable." Shooting took place in Virginia and Delaware. The film opened #52 in 7 cinemas in North America, where it peaked at #37 and in 61 cinemas different weeks) and grossed 258k $ (26 % of the total gross). The biggest market was the UK with 527k $ (53.1 %). North America was the 2nd biggest market, and France was the 3rd biggest with 169k $ (17 %). The different budget accounts leave the film's theatrical performance difficult to ascertain: At best a minor flop, - at worst a huge flop. Roger Ebert gave the filma 3.5/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. The film won a prize in Cannes, was nominated for an award at the AFI Fest, a British Independent Film Award and an Independent Spirit Award; it also won a National Board of Review award and was on many critics' top 10 lists of the year. Saulnier returned with Green Room (2015). Blue Ruin is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Blue Ruin?

Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

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The cool, tunnel-like poster for Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room

Green Room is the 3rd feature from writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin (2013)), who debuted with the low-budgeted horror-comedy Murder Party (2007). 

A passionate but unsuccessful punk band of youths get an offer to finish their ailed tour with a concert that will turn in a wad of cash. Their acceptance is soon regretted when they witness something they shouldn't at the neo-Nazi venue.

Anton Yelchin (Broken Horses (2015)) has grown quite a bit, - from the cute kid of Fierce People (2005)) to the hard-edged, balding guy that meets us in Green Room, in which he acts well yet again. Patrick Stewart (The Game of Their Lives (2005)) is convincing as the inhumane heavy of the pic, though his garbled intonation made me wish I'd had subtitles.
Green Room sets up an interesting premise and turns fast into a survival horror with some effective gross-out moments and awesome effects work. SPOILER The arm chopping scene early on is probably its best.

Real terror didn't creep up on me via the film, simply because the punk band's situation seemed too far removed from any situation I might ever find myself in. What could have been another stupid-youths-caught-in-the-woods-to-die-screaming-one-by-one is lifted here due to the fact that the kids aren't stupid at all, and that the truly rotten predicament seems realistic enough.
SPOILER The film features some neat details like the fire extinguisher turning bad guys into something resembling zombies, and the band, - in true punk kid fashion, - fixing even mutilated limbs with duct tape.
Green Room, while a good ride for fans of the brutal, isn't a perfect film, though. It upholds a solemnity that is a little much, and some of the lines that best represent this don't really stick. It injects a self-ironic touch, but only in the last shot of the film. Some of the characterizations that might have been deepened seem to have been replaced with much talk of cartridges, bullets and guns, which at some point become something  less than interesting. SPOILER Also, the Werm character, intensely portrayed by Brent Werzner (Blue Ruin), who plays an eerie, intense function in the first part of the film, and whom we later feel curious about, has nothing more to do in the film.

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Here's a short trailer for the film

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Green Room was released May 17 (Cannes) and runs 95 minutes. The film was shot from October 2014 in Oregon. It was shown in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes and later shown at the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opened wide #16, in 777 theaters, to a 0.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America where it has so far grossed 2.7 mil. $ (90 % of the total gross). It has been shown at a wealth of film festivals, and the gross reported above must rise in time to come. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets reported yet are France with 0.2 mil. $ (6.7 %) and United Arab Emirates with 66k $ (2.2 %). Green Room is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.7 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Green Room?