Film Review: Blow The Man Down

Blow The Man Down will probably draw comparisons to Fargo in most viewers, and it’s easy to see why. They’re both dark comedies that involve people going into situations that they are not remotely prepared for, capturing the idiosyncrasies of a very specific place in America. Also, they both happen to be made by a writer/director duo. The thing about a lot of films inspired by the likes of Fargo is they often fail to capture two things that helped make the Coen Brothers’ classic so essential. One was an earnest love of the characters, and the other is its sense of place. With Blow The Man Down, filmmakers Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy capture those two things beautifully.

The film is set in a tiny porter town off the coast of Maine. It’s quiet, everyone knows each other, it’s one of those places. Here, we meet sisters Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) and Mary Beth Connolly (Morgan Saylor), who are grieving the death of their mother, and all they have now is a failing business and a home they’re about to lose. Mary Beth goes out for a drink, and ends up with a guy who turns out to have bad intentions in mind. But Mary Beth harpoons him before anything could happen. In a panic, she gets her sister, and they toss the body, now stuffed in a cooler, out into the ocean.

Of course, in stories like these, things never go as smoothly as the characters would hope. Complications arise, cover ups are made, and the sisters get sucked into the shady underbelly of their seemingly idyllic town, especially with Enid (Margo Martindale), who runs a local bed-and-breakfast that “secretly” operates as a brothel. The broad strokes of the story are certainly familiar. I’ve seen a ton of films like this. But the execution of its story, its characters, the filmmaking, is where this truly shines.

The relationship between the sisters is a very believable one, and Lowe and Saylor do a wonderful job at selling their dynamic. You can sense their love for one another, but also all their frustrations, given their conflicting desires. Priscilla wants to stay, and make things work while Mary Beth is desperate to get out of town. Their banter also leads to some sly humor that works well in making the tension even more effective by keeping you on your toes.

Who ends up stealing the film right out from under our leads are all the older ladies in the film. And it’s not just Martindale, who does deliver a commanding and intimidating performance. It’s also in June Squibb, Annette O’Toole, and Marceline Hugot, who play three retirees who keep tabs on all the things that are going on in town, and trying to make things right through their own particular means. All these women take the kinds of characters who would typically be sidelined or used as gags in any other movie, and they inject a lot of pathos and nuance in their roles. They are all an absolute delight.

The filmmaking is stylish, but in a reserved, unobtrusive way. There is a clever device of using singing fishermen like a Greek chorus. The town is captured with muted, Earthy colors, and cold blue hues. You can feel the chill and the grime and the smell of fish. You get a strong sense of the community, and the way an incident can impact the town. It’s immersive filmmaking, and you can certainly see why Mary Beth wants out so bad.

While Blow The Man Down might not reinvent the wheel with these types of dark comedies, specially in terms of its plot mechanics, by shifting to an often lesser explored perspective, the filmmakers breathe new life into an otherwise familiar setup. The performances are strong across the board, the humor is biting and clever, it’s tightly constructed, wasting zero time in their storytelling, and it does a wonderful job at putting you in the world that our characters are stuck in. While its influences might be clear, it delivers beyond mere imitations, and works very well on its own merit. I can’t wait to see what Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy do next.