ReelBob: ‘Blood for Dust’ ★★★

By Bob Bloom

From beginning to end, an aura of menace and despair looms heavily over “Blood for Dust.”

The film opens with a suicide and closes with a Xeroxed copy of a driver’s license on cluttered table.

In between, we witness murder and double crosses, all set against a bleak wintery Montana backdrop.

Cliff (Scoot McNairy) is a not-so-successful salesman who has fallen on hard times. He has trouble selling his latest product — a defibrillator — and is also burdened with financial problems and a checkered past because of irregularities at another company where he once worked.

Though married, Cliff lives a lonely existence, traversing roads through Montana, meeting clients, making phone calls, staying at cheap motels and eating tasteless barroom food. He is in a rut, seemingly in a hole from which he cannot escape.

Cliff is offered a chance by a former colleague, Ricky (“Game of Thrones” Kit Harington), a reckless and loose-cannon arms dealer, who also works for a mid-level drug dealer, John (Josh Lucas). Ricky and Cliff basically cover the same territory.

Ricky tries to recruit Cliff for his venture. At first, Cliff refuses, but finally accepts the offer after his boss learns about Cliff’s past and fires him.

Reluctantly, Cliff meets John, who intimidates the salesman to make sure he realizes the seriousness of his situation and to cow him into not stealing from John.

Cliff and one of John’s henchmen go to make a routine delivery, which turns into a bloodbath when Ricky appears.

Soon bodies are dotting the snowy landscape as Ricky, with Cliff as his reluctant partner, makes a power grab against John.

“Blood for Dust,” directed by Rod Blackhurst with a screenplay by David Ebeltoft, based on a story by the duo, has a fatalistic and paranoid air. You anxiously wait to see who will turn on who and who will be the last man standing.

McNairy (“Argo,” “Gone Girl,” “A Quiet Place Part II”) creates a haunted persona for Cliff, endowing him with a desperation that clings to him like sweat on a hot August afternoon.

Harington’s Ricky is a gun-happy, amoral individual whose only loyalty is to the money he can accrue.

“Blood for Dust” is an intense, dark drama that never falters. It is a morally ambiguous feature that will hold you in its grip.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.

BLOOD FOR DUST
3 stars out of 4
Not rated, graphic violence, nudity, language