LuvSopr
This movie seems to be two halves. Amanda Fuller's Erica makes her way through the slow grind of life with anonymous sexual encounters (her choice) and a long series of jobs and addresses. She meets Noah Taylor's Nate, and begins to thaw.This was probably my first disagreement with the film...I wasn't sure if I believed she would become close to him. Nate is a construct, a theme from the director, but rarely a flesh and blood creation I could relate to.The rest of the film relates to Marc Senter's Franki, stuck in a job he doesn't care about, always chasing rainbows with a girlfriend who looks elsewhere, and a dated band waiting for superstardom. He takes care of his mother, a sweet and slightly defeated woman who is probably the most achingly realistic character in the film. I truly cared about these people. The happiness they feel when their lives seem to be turning around is the film's emotional and creative high point.Amanda Fuller and Marc Senter have some strong scenes but the movie steadily fades, with the last section mostly being about an entry into shock value, more than what suited the characters or plots.I'd love to have seen another version of this movie, without Nate.
Fiona Webster
I'n a longtime horror fan. I like my horror movies intense, bloody & down-to-earth. If they're too slick, if everything from the story & pace & acting, to the editing & sound production, slots together too perfectly, I will admire the film, but not be moved by it. I started watching "Red, White & Blue" thinking it was a "psychological suspense thriller," because that's what Netflix told me it was. Much to my delight, it's a flat-out (non-supernatural) horror movie that satisfies my taste. It's also a multifaceted revenge tragedy—a study of how one initial act of violence (the rape of 4-yr-old girl) spins out a world of suffering, which leads to many unfocused acts of revenge, one of which eventually triggers a much more pointed episode of revenge, which in turn triggers a veritable *rampage* of revenge—so well-acted & so engaging, it practically bores a hole in your brain. One brilliant thing about this flick is that all of this takes place in a central Texas setting which is as real as the sun is hot. I'm a Texan, so I should know. Don't you hate movies that start out telling you they're located in a specific geographic locale, then some aspects of the setting—the character's accents, for example, or the license plates on cars, or a city skyline—are broadcasted so loud & clear you get sick of 'em, but many other, more telling, aspects—like the architecture of the houses or the sounds of the birds or the kinds of trees, even—are all wrong? It distracts you from your immersion in the story! This movie is just the opposite: we see a hint here, a hint there, of where the events are unfolding, but unless you recognize specific streets & buildings of one lowdown area of Austin—I didn't, because I don't know Austin that well—the fact that you're in Texas seeps rather gradually into your awareness. Even the fact that one character has an obvious tattoo of the state's outline only means that *he's* a Texan. But by the end, when a big Texas flag flapping gently in the wind in someone's front yard prompts you into a reverie about what the title of the movie signifies, you are so grounded in place, it deeply underscores the gritty, down-to-earth flavor of the whole flick. That also contributes to how the story's tragedy, while ramifying out to include dozens, even hundreds, of people, feels as tightly concentrated as a watch spring. I must warn you that the real story you're watching—as opposed to the mere events—will also take a while to seep into your awareness. And that this can be kind of annoying. At first I thought that the film was lagging because our initial point-of-view character wasn't being very well acted. But once you understand why the character is like that, you'll appreciate the subtlety that Amanda Fuller brings to the role. Same goes for Eric Senter's character, who comes across as such an irritating dweeb he's hard to look at—and then you get *his* story. Noah Taylor's character, on the other hand, is so fascinating from the get-go, you won't be able to take your eyes off him. He just about pops off the screen, that's how intensely he burns.After all was said and done, I appreciated, in retrospect, the way the way the movie starts out so slow as to be almost meandering, then starts to pick up speed, accelerates some more, and then quite suddenly slams into the rampage I referred to earlier. But still, for all of the violence in Act 3, the story is never hyper: it steadily remains in the real world, where there are always occasional downshifts in a sequence of events.The only thing I didn't like about the flick was the fingernails-on-blackboard piano music that's supposed to heighten the splatter at the end: they should've stuck with the rock-n-roll used earlier."Red, White & Blue" even has a denouement. How often does *that* happen? The kind of denouement that lets the flames of intense emotion die down, even lets the embers cool, before the screen goes black and the credits roll. Simon Rumley is definitely no amateur. I'm going to be watching his next flick, that's for sure. I hope it's horror!
