12) Blue Ruin

A gritty, singular and decidedly anti-revenge revenge thriller, Blue Ruin is the most unshakable American film of the year, and unquestionably one of its best. Focusing on Dwight (Macon Blair), an extremely traumatized bum who returns home to kill the people he believes responsible for the savage murders of his parents, the film is a whiplash-inducing response to the mass shootings that dominate our headlines these days, exploring the circular nature of revenge and the inhuman savagery of modern weaponry with the utmost precision.

Director Jeremy Saulnier exercises extreme control behind the camera, cutting anything and everything extraneous, leaving us with a film in which so much has been boiled away that only its bare bones remain. Much like Dwight, a husk of a man who suddenly comes alive when he senses an opportunity to inflict grievous pain on those who wronged him, Blue Ruin is a spare and haunting affair, punctuated with moments of heart-in-mouth violence.

Saulnier appears equally enthralled and horrified by the all-American practices of vengeance that slowly but surely wreck his characters’ lives. Perhaps it’s a good thing that he isn’t (at least loudly) up in arms about taking guns off the streets and out of the hands of people like Dwight – that keeps Blue Ruin interesting. It’s a ruthless, raw thriller that makes you think as much as it makes you squirm – as well as the kind of shockingly reflexive filmmaking that our society needs more of.