Screened as part of NZIFF 2013

Blue Ruin 2013

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier

It’s been a few years since Jeremy Saulnier’s horror-comedy mash-up Murder Party hit the festival circuit and won a lot of fans. Now he’s back with a riff on the revenge movie, immediately selected for the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.

USA In English
95 minutes CinemaScope / DCP

Director, Screenplay, Photography

Producers

Anish Savjani
,
Richard Peete
,
Vincent Savino

Editor

Julia Bloch

Production designer

Kaet McAnneny

Costume designer

Brooke Bennett

Music

Brooke Blair
,
Will Blair

With

Macon Blair (Dwight)
,
Devin Ratray (Ben Gaffney)
,
Amy Hargreaves (Sam)
,
Kevin Kolack (Teddy Cleland)
,
Eve Plumb (Kris Cleland)
,
David W. Thompson (William)
,
Brent Werzner (Carl Cleland)
,
Stacy Rock (Hope Cleland)
,
Sidné Anderson (Officer Eddy)

Festivals

Cannes (Directors’ Fortnight) 2013

Elsewhere

It’s been a few years since Jeremy Saulnier’s horror-comedy mash-up Murder Party hit the festival circuit and won a lot of fans. Now he’s back with a riff on the revenge movie, immediately selected for the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. In the film’s solemn and quiet opening we meet Dwight, a homeless man who collects trash for money. After reading about the release of a double murderer he visibly transforms from dishevelled bearded bum into determined member of society. Pieces of his past are revealed through his unpredictable and violent actions. What follows is a deeply comic narrative of family retribution, white-trash psychosis and home invasion, set to the unsettling rhythms of a weapons-obsessed world. Deftly shot, with thoughtful widescreen compositions, this terrifically directed film combines the classic feuding-families set-up with the meditative veneer of a very clever contemporary art-house thriller. — Ant Timpson