a review of 蓝色废墟

#21: Blue Ruin (Amazon Prime) Jeremy Saulnier's "Green Room" was one of my favorite films from 2016, so I thought I should bone up on his previous films. After seeing this one, I definitely see the two films as being very much of a piece with one another: The interest in marginal people living off the radar of normal society, the focus on watching characters think their way through situations, and on how events can escalate in unpredictable ways. I wisely avoided reading any spoilers about the movie prior to watching it, and I advise anyone reading this to do the same. Go in with an open mind, and expecting some bloody violence to ensue, but beyond that just let Saulnier's story unspool and surprise you. It's dark in the way that a Cormac McCarthy novel is, and in many ways is just as rewarding.