I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

Macon Blair has starred in two of Jeremy Saulnier’s films (Blue Ruin, Green Room) so it only makes sense that he would adopt some of the director’s trademark gritty criminal thrill. Blair both wrote and directed this indie darling, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize earlier this year. The film’s themes include discontentment, crime, mental illness, and animalistic vengeance. Much like Saulnier, Blair seems to have found his voice among the derelict and poverty stricken blue collar element of the criminals in our very own backyards.

Melanie Lynskey plays Ruth, a soft spoken and internally irritated nurse who is constantly dealing with other people’s ridiculous selfishness. She cares for a racist patient, deals with cutters at the supermarket, and endures general social annoyances. When her home is broken into and the police are nowhere near as helpful as she wishes them to be, she takes things into her own hands. The film is not hyperbolic in its presentation of Ruth. It does not mischaracterize who she really is by making her go off the rails immediately, but builds the tension succinctly by creating a noble quest that must be finished by unrestrained means. Aided by her neighbor (a high strung Elijah Wood) Ruth tackles the impossible in her own quiet yet lethal manner.

This really could be another Saulnier film, a fact I am increasingly bringing up because the tone of the entire film is in the genre of Southern Gothic. This genre isn’t very popular and the only other film to be released this year with the same instinct is Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled. (The most recent film I can think of is Winter’s Bone, which was seven years ago.) Saulnier’s next film is set in the Alaskan wilderness, and may veer away from his tried and true formula. Perhaps Blair will hold the mantle of the next great crime director.

Overall I say that this is a film that definitely needs to be seen by more people. Sundance has sometimes placed too much praise on clunker indies that are misremembered in the years afterward. This feels like a really solid choice for the award, in an age where anyone can have a hand in movie making, and indie filmmaking is a viable business model. I look forward to Blair’s next directorial work, whatever it may be.