Blue Ruin (2013)

Blue Ruin takes the revenge thriller and strips it down to a grim reality. The villains are people with back stories, photo albums and loved ones, while Dwight, the incompetent protagonist, cannot stop the spiral of violence and suffering started by a man already dead. There is no happy ever after and the survivors end up as worn out, battered and tired as Dwight's old Pontiac.

Tense, sad and sometimes brutal, Blue Ruin is a great slice of modern Noir with a hero nowhere in sight.

Original letterboxd review