Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Rod Blackhurst
Starring: Scoot McNairy, Kit Harington, Josh Lucas, Stephen Dorff, Ethan Suplee,
Nora Zehetner, Amber Rose Mason
The thriller genre is overstuffed with tales of desperate men landing
themselves in trouble after following the promise of making some fast
and easy money. Director Rod Blackhurst's
Blood for Dust doesn't pull up any trees in the film noir
forest in terms of its plot, but it keeps us gripped with some fine
performances and skilful storytelling that makes the familiar
nonetheless intriguing.
In a recent interview, Steven Soderbergh spoke of how reluctant many
filmmakers are to set their films in the present day due to how the
conveniences of modern technology are largely anathema to cinematic
storytelling. That's a particular problem in the crime thriller, and
likely why Blackhurst and his co-writer David Ebeltoft have opted
to set theirs in the early '90s. It allows for their protagonist to live
a life that's rapidly disappearing in today's world, that of the
travelling salesman.
Cliff (Scoot McNairy) spends his days travelling up and down the
snow-lined roads of Montana, Dakota and Wyoming, flogging defibrillators
to various businesses. It's clear that he and his wife, Amy (Nora Zehetner), are going through a difficult time, with hints of a familial tragedy
that Cliff can't quite process. We get the impression that Cliff's job
conveniently allows him to spend time away from Amy, thus avoiding
having to deal with whatever troubles appear to be haunting the
couple.
When Cliff loses his job due to his boss's discovery of his past
involvement in some dodgy dealings that ended with the suicide of a
co-worker (detailed in the film's gory opening tableau), Cliff
desperately seeks work only to find his past has left him unemployable.
That's until what seems like a chance encounter with Ricky (Kit Harington), a cocky former co-worker who was also involved in Cliff's scam.
Ricky offers Cliff a way to make some easy money. All he has to do is
transport drugs along the routes he's already familiar with. As his face
is well known in these areas, he's unlikely to attract unwanted
attention, and it doesn't hurt that he's an unassuming white guy in a
family station wagon. What could go wrong?
Of course, it all goes wrong, and soon Cliff is regretting his decision
while trying to find a way to save his skin. There are various twists
along the way, but none of them are particularly surprising if you're
familiar with the beats of film noir. Those twists and turns may well be
enough for some viewers, but Blood for Dust works best as
a moody character study. The setting of America's frozen north is
inherently cinematic and it was often used by '90s crime thrillers (Fargo, A Simple Plan et al) in similar fashion to how the
deserts of the SouthWest were so popular in the '80s. Taking noir from
its established setting of the city into wide open landscapes with big
skies adds a certain element of paranoia. Blackhurst exploits this
nicely by having Cliff accompanied on his route by a taciturn mobster
(Ethan Suplee) who could easily kill him and dump his body in the
middle of nowhere. Plus there's a van that seems to be suspiciously
following them, leading to one of the film's most tense sequences.
Blackhurst, a graduate of the recent school of true crime documentaries,
assembles his film in a very patient, very classical manner that gives
it the appearance of a lost John Dahl movie from the early '90s. This
downplayed approach makes the sudden eruptions of violence all the more
impactful.
Perhaps what's most interesting about Blood for Dust is
how it subverts the femme fatale trope. Harington's Ricky occupies that
role, seducing Cliff not with sex but with the promise of financial
stability. It's a sign of how things have changed for men in recent
times, that simply clearing bills is now more alluring than the flesh of
some buxom temptress. Harington is surprisingly good here, and he plays
the role with something of a homoerotic frisson, like Rob Lowe in Curtis
Hanson's
Bad Influence. Cliff grows increasingly paranoid about Ricky's intentions towards
him, but Harington plays it in an ambiguously chilling way that causes
us to ask why he might prefer to keep Cliff alive. Harington gets the
showy homme fatale role, but it's McNairy who anchors the film. Since
his breakout turn in Gareth Edwards' Monsters he's
struggled to find a niche, but with his hang dog expression and
simultaneous conveyance of resignation and exasperation, McNairy makes
for the perfect put-upon noir protagonist.
