Blue Ruin
Picturehouse Entertainment | Release Date: April 25, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Portland OregonianJamie S. RichMay 1, 2014
This smart crime story from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier avoids wading into the waters of righteousness that drown many violent movies. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 25, 2014
It’s a brilliant, slow-burning American revenge thriller that hardly puts a foot wrong, a work of startling violence and profound conscience that announces the arrival of an exciting young director. Read full review
100
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonApr 22, 2014
As an action film — which in small bursts it is — Blue Ruin is disquieting and raw, like Commando turned inside out. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Apr 23, 2014
Blue Ruin rarely resembles anything but itself. Much of the singularity can be attributed to the film’s atypical hero, surely one of the year’s great characters. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczApr 23, 2014
With the same brand of realist irony the Coens used to cool down "Blood Simple," writer-director Jeremy Saulnier slows the genre’s heartbeat to gripping effect. Read full review
91
The PlaylistGabe ToroDec 20, 2013
It’s easily the most suspenseful American film of the year, a thriller that feels like lightning across a quiet night sky; sudden, terrifying, and excitingly singular. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 2, 2014
The lack of any readily identifiable star - no Cage, no McConaughey - makes Blue Ruin feel even more authentic, more rooted in this frightening world. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramMay 1, 2014
You couldn’t ask for a more unlikely avenger than the ill-equipped sort-of hero of Blue Ruin, and that’s precisely why it’s far, far more suspenseful than the typical violent revenge thriller. It’s also why it functions equally well as a potent reflection on the futility of revenge. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaApr 25, 2014
The bloody fingerprints of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers — among other violence-prone auteurs — are smeared all over his tidy and tautly-told Blue Ruin. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanApr 24, 2014
Blair is excellent in the lead, but the filmmaking is the true star here. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 24, 2014
Blue Ruin is the rare film that is nearly consistently tense, the suspense only temporarily subsiding about an hour into the story. It's a welcome respite. Read full review
86
Film.comDavid EhrlichDec 20, 2013
A feral and staggeringly well-conceived revenge saga. Read full review
80
The GuardianLeslie FelperinOct 26, 2015
The endgame is disappointingly predictable, but writer-director-cinematographer Jeremy Saulnier has a lovely touch with faces, light and telling details. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghMay 8, 2014
Blue Ruin is a movie about revenge, but it reaches far past the bottom-shelf titillations of fantasy to tell a richer, character-driven story with a protagonist who's less avenging angel than ghost. Read full review
80
CineVuePatrick GambleMay 3, 2014
A nefarious misadventure that's technical prowess and heartbreaking lead performance belies its economical pedigree, Saulnier's farcical tale is punctuated with irregular scenes of dark, bumbling humour whilst a wanton disregard for the bellicose testosterone of similar tales successfully constructs a tense and naturally opaque mood that broods with the clammy tension of an impending storm. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyMay 3, 2014
There’s nothing Saulnier does better here than unveil his premise and bring the siblings together for their handful of scenes, but his film remains deftly shot and dynamic to the end. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanApr 28, 2014
A lean, tough, thoughtful thriller with depth, Blue Ruin establishes Jeremy Saulnier as a promising indie auteur and Macon Blair as an unusual leading man. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamApr 28, 2014
A cunning, suspenseful thriller that bears comparison to the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple, Blue Ruin is an impossible-to-ignore calling card from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Hollywood awaits. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensApr 25, 2014
Blue Ruin is a Clint Eastwood vigilante fantasy with an anti-Clint at its center—small-statured, round-faced, nervous Dwight (Macon Blair), whose burning desire to avenge the long-ago murder of his parents doesn’t make him one whit less terrified of actually doing it. Read full review
80
The DissolveScott TobiasApr 24, 2014
Like Blood Simple, Blue Ruin deals in crimes of passion, carried out by human beings who are flawed yet tragically relatable—one is about mopping up the blood, the other about the impossibility of stanching the flow. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangDec 20, 2013
A lean and suspenseful genre piece that follows a bloody trail of vengeance to its cruel, absurd and logical conclusion. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 23, 2014
Appearing in almost every frame of Blue Ruin, Blair – who previously starred in "The Man From Orlando" and writer/director Jeremy Saulnier’s first feature, "Murder Party" – owns this film. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMay 1, 2014
The filmmaker works with economy and has a knack for creating a sense of foreboding, which is good because the plot is simply a working out of the old saw that violence begets violence. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartApr 23, 2014
Sparse of dialogue, terrifically ominous and full of low-key, high-quality performances, Blue Ruin is a vigilante tale even haters like me can get behind. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreApr 22, 2014
Blue Ruin joins “Shotgun Stories” and “Joe” as vivid reminders that however homogenized American culture seems, there are still pockets that are distinct, with people who live by their own rules and their own bloody code. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyApr 27, 2014
It's only at the end of Blue Ruin that my pleasure drained away. [28 April 2014, p.86]
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 24, 2014
Blue Ruin is an uneven film, and there are slip-ups along the way, but the tension that settles in slowly like a low-grade fever keeps you with it. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 24, 2014
Stingy with details and dialogue, but more than generous with atmosphere, this seductively photographed thriller (written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, who also wielded the camera) sells its empty calories with great skill. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoApr 21, 2014
By reducing its principals to stock figures in an extended chess game, it ends up providing steady, neatly staged thrills, but little else of substance. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 24, 2014
Saulnier accomplishes something rare here. He has an ability to convey depth of feeling and ominousness without tricks or even musical cues. Read full review
60
Time OutTom HuddlestonApr 22, 2014
The result is a film that starts with a bang and ends with a shrug, but keeps us entertained throughout. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 20, 2013
Blue Ruin is a talented but sophomoric low-budgeter that straddles the divide between genre thriller and art piece with mixed results. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 27, 2014
Blue Ruin is more artful and evocative than any recent revenge picture, but it’s still drivel. Read full review
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