Blue Ruin

[Jesse Gooch]

Because of a thing for school, I’ve looked at a lot of definitions of film noir lately and have learned that it gets harder and harder to pinpoint what is and isn’t “noir” after about 1950, I think the “neo” qualifier allows it to cover even more stuff.  I could try to find the article on neo-noir that had it on the list of movies, but I don’t remember it really listing its qualifications.  Not being a specific genre, it’s a pretty subjective thing.  I’ll get back to you on the verite aspect once I write a paper on that. For now, I’ll trust that you’re probably right.
As far as Green Room goes, it’s never bad watching Nazis get killed.  But having grown up in the punk scene, and then been locked-up with a lot of skinheads, it just seemed silly.  It felt like a movie about punks and white supremacists made by somebody that had only seen punks and white supremacists on TV (like if a white guy from Bismarck had made Boys in the Hood after binge-watching gangland and lockup raw). Not a terrible movie though. Nice to see Sir Patrick playing something different.



From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2017 at 9:50 PM
To: Jesse Gooch <jlgooch at hotmail.com>
Cc: Tom May <tjpmay at gmail.com>, Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: Blue Ruin

IT looks pretty scary for what I'm assuming is a kids' movie.
Green Room on the other hand is pretty hard to forget. Essentially a very gory horror film with no supernatural elements. In fact quite scarily plausible. Patrick Stewart is terrific. Reminded me of the UK film Kill List. Wouldn't say I liked or enjoyed either but they stick to the back of the brain.

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 11:44 AM, Jesse Gooch <jlgooch at hotmail.com<mailto:jlgooch at hotmail.com>> wrote:


From: Tom May <tjpmay at gmail.com<mailto:tjpmay at gmail.com>>
Date: Saturday, April 1, 2017 at 8:02 PM
To: Jesse Gooch <jlgooch at hotmail.com<mailto:jlgooch at hotmail.com>>
Cc: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org<mailto:pynchon-l at waste.org>>
Subject: Re: Blue Ruin

Blue Ruin has a lot going for it. The way it depicted the sloppiness of violence especially. Overall though, I thought the story and writing in general was not weak but not brilliant either.
There's something about digital cinematography that I just don't like. Bar the way Fincher and Mann use it, I can't ever seem to like it. And when the budget needed for shooting on film, 16mm or even 35mm if you're super resourceful, isn't that out of reach, I just don't understand why anyone goes the digital route.
It was a good enough movie, made me care about what the director made next.

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 1:58 AM, Jesse Gooch <jlgooch at hotmail.com<mailto:jlgooch at hotmail.com>> wrote:
Who’s seen Blue Ruin?  I liked this quite a bit.  Came across it in an article about neo noir and enjoyed it.  Good pacing and the protagonist was interesting.
Not so much a fan of the other 2 movies the guy made (Murder Party and Green Room) but this one is good.


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