User Reviews

Here's the pluses. Its well acted, the performers did a very good job selling their roles. For me the best thing about it is the station wagon. Back in the day some of the best motors found their way in some very unassuming cars.

Now the bad. In an effort to it gritty and atmospheric, they made it much too dark. It's often hard for see what's going on. There's also not t enough time spent on some of the characters. Why is the kid following Cliff? No one ever since explains it. Cliff seems to be much too old to be married to Amy. Speaking of Amy, a woman sacrificing so much for an ill child, she needs more screen time.

All and all it was a decent watch.

Cliff (Scoot McNairy) is a depressed defibrillator salesman working across the Northwest, mostly Montana. The weather is also depressing. He had worked for Meridian selling hard drives and things turned bad. He is having money issues as her tries to provide for his family. He meets an old friend from Meridian named Ricky (Kit Harington) at a strip joint. Ricky is doing well selling what people want. He talks Cliff into joining him running drugs and arms. Having a station wagon with a defib dummy is a great cover. On his first exchange, Ricky shows up and puts bullets into everyone. Cliff fears for his family.

This was a boring film from start to finish. Characters were not developed. Cliff's depression placed a downer on the whole production.

Guide: F-word. Nudity.

Those critics (few) who call the film formulaic or cliche would likely call Goodfellas just another mafia crime flic. One wonders if any movie exists in which these pundits wouldn't see a storyline they thought they saw earlier, somewhere else. They certainly mostly missed Blood for Dust's solid storytelling, the "never a wasted scene" directing, the great acting, and the compelling sets and scenes.

Quoting Mark Twain, "We ... take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations."

Blood for Dust is all of that: a curious combination of story, scene, set, production, and acting that makes something entirely new. There is tension from the first gunshot, from the first meeting of Ricky and Cliff, from Cliff's efforts to get a new job, to Cliff signing on with John, to the realization that Ricky is a soulless killer.

And, at the same time, writer David Ebeltoft shows that he cares about - and compels us to care about too - Cliff, his wife Amy, and his former lover, Rebecca. Throughout the movie we feel profound empathy for Cliff, and in important scenes that some might overlook, deep sympathy for Amy and Rebecca.

Of all the acting, dialogue, set design, and production value that take Blood for Dust to the highest level of its crime/drama genres, among the most compelling single moments for me came toward the end, when Amy removes a blood spot from a hockey card, and when the last frame is of a piece of paper that makes you wonder (even yearn to know) what would happen if the film had another 30 minutes to run. I really want to know.

As an aside - I am shocked that this film doesn't enjoy better marketing and even better (already quite good) overall scores. Maybe things will improve when the film hits open streaming channels. But in the meantime: "Com' on folks. Let's have the public do what the distributor isn't." Watch the movie! You won't be disappointed.