spoileroonies in pink :D We follow Dwight on a journey of morally reprehensible revenge. The film uses a sort of reverse dramatic irony that reminds me very much of memento. An issue
that can sometimes appear with flashbacks in films is that they can take away from the pacing of the narrative. This is why Blue Ruin does away with them completely. Its complex and thrilling
story has no time to guide the viewer through Dwight's backstory; instead opting to let the audience cronstruct it themselves. It gives the film a sort of puzzle feeling and left me feeling rather
satisfied at the end, having figured it out. I think that as well, throughout the film, Dwight's resourceful nature parallels this puzzle feeling. He tackles every problem as though it were a puzzle
waiting to be solved and this expecatation I think reinforces us as viewers to have this attitude towards the film as well.
In terms of the more technical aspects of the film, the cinematography didn't especially stand out to me as memorable but the costume design, especially for Dwight, was just phenomenal.
How he looks at the start is just utterly horrifying: a dirty pair of beige trousers and shirt cling to his body and his ragged hair and beard hang from his head. He looks destroyed; a person
from a world more terrible than we could imagine. He also wears this distant lost, look throughout the beginning of the film. It feels as though he has dissasociated himself from the rest of
the world. Yet he is ripped back into reality after he kills Wade. He looks human again, with this terribly sad glint of innocence within his eyes, as though he was not aware or ready for the
ramifications this action would have. Its especially present when he realises Williams is inside the limo. The blood now present on his shirt further reinvigorating that sense of humanity within
him. He tries to fit back in, tidying himself up and wearing a blue button shirt and chinos but it just feels wrong because his behaviour is so inhuman. He has been without society for too long.
This loss of humanity is really key to the films concerns; it ponders the question 'How far can someone go and still be human?' At its core Blue Ruin is a story of revenge and with an ending
where everyone except for one character dies, it really makes you wonder if theres anyone you can root for in the film besides Williams. Dwight feels inhuman for a lot of the film, distancing
himself from others and behaving quietly and passively. It creates an uncomfortable feelingas the time when he feels most human is the same time that he does something so inhuman
(murdering 3 people, almost finishing off a bloodline) because we understand why he does this on an innately human level. It made me question how I could've rooted for him through the
film, seriously take a second to reflect on how I felt about Dwight, because it was terrifyingly sympathetic. The question really becomes 'Is Dwight still human after what he did?' and I think
the answer is yes. Its a fantastic philosophical dialogue that the film opens within you.
Blue Ruin can be enjoyed on a surface level as the story and unravelling is genuinely thrilling but then can be enjoyed once more (as I have done through the writing of this article) on a
deeper, critical level as it forces you to question what makes you sympathise with someone and how that may reflect upon your own assumptions of the world.
Ily guyysss (★ ω ★)