Tomato Red: Blood Money (2017) User Reviews

Deserves more attention than the mere 7 reviews, but the movie lacks credibility in story and lacks chemistry between the actors.

[imseeg · 6/10 · 3 May 2020]

A looser meets other loosers. They bond and they both continue to struggle through their daily looser lifes. That's basically the story about these young, poor Americans, who live in constant poverty and sorrow.

The good: acting is good, yet not above normal good. The time that is taken to get to know these poor loosers is nice as well. It gives a good portrait of every character.

The bad: lacking spark. It lasts an half hour too long at least. And there is no real chemistry between the leading actors, who do act decently, but nothing above barely decent. Dialogues are good, but the general storyline is not very credible at moments and not very thrilling either.

Not bad, simply lacking just that bit of extra. Therefore only 6 stars.

Grim Southern Gothic

[Armin_Nikkhah_Shirazi · 6/10 · 10 February 2022]

The title and poster led me to expect this to be a completely different film than it turned out to be, namely an action thriller, but actually it is Southern Gothic drama with some mild thriller elements. Now, this is not necessarily a problem for me personally because I am open to be surprised, but I wonder if this might have hurt the film's marketing.

The movie is competently executed and features passable acting, but I could just not get rid of a constant feeling of annoyance at watching one poor life choice after another, with practically no insight into the consequences, by several of the major characters, right up until just before the end of the movie. When, at that point-finally!-each of the three main characters attained an insight, it struck me as so profoundly cynical that I could not get myself to care about it.

I realize that this may very well be the point of the movie: to depict the grim lives of the bottom barrel of society, hopeless, with flawed moral systems and an inability of its members to find a way out of their situations, and where every poor choice is bound to both be punished more harshly than it deserves by society, and to serve as a prelude to further poor choices.

As far as what a drama could be about, it is actually a really good point. But when there is too much of that, then one eventually stops caring about the characters, and that is what happened to me here (except for the character of the mother, who did elicit some feelings of pity).

Four- or Five-hundred Lines of Really Good Free Verse Poetry

[ex7617 · 3 May 2017]

The same author's Winter's Bone had a big impact. I saw it on DVD or Netflix and was duly impressed, but not nearly so much as with this lackadaisically paced, (beautifully filmed, I guess), truly poetic telling of some not-improbable (in fact, very lifelike-seeming) marginal SW US characters doing what they have to in the face of a sociopolitical environment that is obviously, to an almost comical extent, thoroughly stacked against them!

Bravo, everyone - actors, writer/director, casting, DP, editor(s) - and keep up the good work!

Friends come from anywhere

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 1 December 2017]

Sammy (Jake Weary) gets out of prison and thinks he hit rock bottom when he runs into Jamalee (Julia Garner) and her brother Jason (Nick Roux). He teams up with them because he has no where else to go. He meets their mother Beverly (Anna Friel) who works as one of the town's prostitutes...out of her home. She feeds everyone.

These are the people who were too poor and trashy to be in "Winterbone." There is a constant showing of a train giving us a tiring "wrong side of the tracks" symbolism. The film attempts to make a statement about class, class struggle and staying in the class you are born into, but falls short of anything that Marx could recognize.

Guide: F-word. sex. no nudity.

Too Heavy for Its Own Good

[Smerdyakoff · 4/10 · 2 October 2022]

This is the sort of movie that has intellectual study, of you guessed it, class in America bent to it. The writer is definitely intelligent, but not intelligent enough to avoid writing a lame pointless movie. There was a constant voice over by Sammy narrating his awful life and how crappy society is to people like him, Julia Garner did the same grossed out dirty look throwing smart but white trash as Jamalee Merridew, the same act she did all through the 4 seasons of Ozark which came after this movie, so she wasn't typecasted in that role when they filmed this movie. Jake Weary plays the main character drifter jail bug Sammy and he did the best job. By then he was already doing Animal Kingdom as Deran, the gay thoughtful crime family brother who bought a bar. Ok we get it, being poor and in and out of jail in some rural Canadian mountain town pretending to be Oklahoma is a bad deal. But playing stupid games like breaking into nicer homes with her gay brother Jason just to pretend to be rich is even dumber. That is how the siblings met Sammy, whom they then invited home to be part of their "gang".

They all make bad decisions like smoke all the time and not even bothering to shut the screen doors on Jam's run down trailer. Or break glass bowls on the kitchen floor when barefoot.

Things come to a head when Jam tries to get a job as a waitress at the country club only to be thrown out by the guards there. Obviously she wasn't the right fit for the local hick town high society because she lives in Venus Hollow where all the white trash lives. While we never saw her interview, this created a fight outside as Sammy stood up for Jamalee by punching out a guard only to be beaten down by a broom wielding janitor. Why the club couldn't interview her then later turn her down was supposed to signify how awful these people are I guess. This then created an act of retaliation on the part of the siblings and Sammy who kidnap some pigs at night and get them to root up some greens at the bad old country club then drive around in golf carts having a grand old time.

Then things take a turn for the worse as her gay brother Jason first turns up missing then found dead in a pond under very suspicious circumstances. It was established he was murdered for what, some minor vandalism, and the local cop who had a tense relationship with the family. Did I forget to tell you that Jam and Jason's mom Bev was the town prostitute who took a fancy to Sammy too? The cop offered them some "blood money" and then the narrative degenerated into a stupid conclusion that really wasn't a conclusion. Obviously it was meant to signify the pointlessness of their lives or something, or the viewers who stuck with it.

This movie goes nowhere very slowly.

[wkcollinsfamily · 3/10 · 29 October 2022]

No direction, no interaction between actors, and no storyline! If you watch this and don't agree in the first 15 minutes you're going to waste the rest of the hour and a half you watch this movie. What a shame for Julia Garner who carried Ozark in many episodes. But wasted or lost her talents in this snoozer. So let me put it like this if you read this twice you may get the message.

No direction, no interaction between actors, and no storyline! If you watch this and don't agree in the first 15 minutes you're going to waste the rest of the hour and a half you watch this movie. What a shame for Julia Garner who carried Ozark in many episodes. But wasted or lost her talents in this snoozer.

Not a fluffy film

[LaOvet · 8/10 · 6 June 2021]

If you're into action films, this is not for you. If you're into thoughtful films and willing to meet the characters where they are at in their reality, and you're open to the fact that this represents a plight that many humans are born into, then this is worthy of your time. You really can't go too far wrong when Julia Garner or Anna Friel decide a fim is worth participating in.

My biggest problem with the film is not in the actors, the characters, the writing, or the cinematography. It's that since I was raised in the Ozark and have lived in California, I know that the mountains in the background look more like the Central Valley of California than they will ever resemble the Ozarks. They may have gotten away with it if it weren't for the wide shots, but it also looks too dry. The reality is that this film was shot in Canada. I wish the scouts would have researched the terrain and geography of the Ozarks better because if you're going to say a film is based in Missouri, in the United States and it's a major component to the plot, then it visually needs to be believable. The mountains in the background completely took me out of the film. At least Julia moved on to the acclaimed TV series "Ozark" where even though it's not shot in the Ozarks, it sure as heck looks like it because of all the location research they did to ensure it has an authentic look and feel for sense of place.

Self conscious but interesting...

[blueskystyling · 4/10 · 24 September 2022]

This film has some great actors- and pretty good performances. The dialogue goes in and out from natural to poetic... but then it switches into self conscious, kind of stilted pronouncements that reminds us that someone wrote this dialogue and is trying to be profound and important.

The main challenge, though, is that the "holler"-ostensively a thickly wooded valley in the Ozarks- is shot in some desertlike part of Canada. Ok, so there are some large, dry mounds around that could signify "mountains", but come on! Are the Canadian Film Board subsidized tax breaks worth making it impossible to suspend disbelief for the entire film? Nope!

Blood, Pain, and The Horror!

[gpknopp · 9/10 · 2 May 2017]

What a beautiful movie.

This movie made crass and smelly, trailer folk attractive, and ethical.

The editing and cinematography are impeccable. I loved the pacing, particularly the rhythm of the of the character development. The cinematography and sound are incredible.

Oh, and social relevance.

It reminds me of Winter's Bone in the context of its outlook. Lower class struggling Americans, oppressing by this shitty economic system that exploits everybody who can't afford no lawyer. But instead of smelling like cheap soap and cheap booze, they smell like the desert they live in. Freedom lovers everywhere are oppressed, right?

Tomato Red

[Le_Nausea · 9/10 · 11 May 2017]

I'm generally biased against American films and their lack of subtlety but think I would watch any independent film with Julia Garner in it, she's that good. I also really enjoyed the honesty of the main character in his acknowledgment of his position in life. Sometimes a narration in a film comes across cheesy, and it was at times - but it was paramount to the film that the marginalized be given a voice. The cinematography is stunning also.

What a beautiful movie : )

[bindougie-27429 · 10/10 · 8 July 2019]

Spectacular, is the only way to describe this "gem" of a Canadian movie. Though not sure how "Canadian" it is as mostly american and 1 british actors/actresses. Must be the money. Always follow the money : ( But still filmed in Canada, that counts for something (mostly tax credits, but what ever) Still is a very "great" movie. Lots of smoking (I'm a smoker, so I approve), and lots of quirky fun. How in the heck the Irish are involved I don't see, must be the money trail again. Capitalism soooo sucks : ( 10 out of 10 from me : )

A Meditation on Poverty in Modern Rural America

[jasonkoenig · 9/10 · 25 September 2022]

Julia garner is, as expected, mesmerizing. The role might hew a little too closely to the character she plays in Ozark, but in an hour and a half she brings similar nuance to a character she developed over many years in the Netflix show. Anna Friel as Bev is a subtle sensation and Nick Roux as Garner's on-screen brother is sublimely understated. Jake Weary as the male lead is in one of those roles where it's difficult to imagine anyone else doing it. He *is* Sammy.

Much of the dialogue is truly mesmerizing, a credit to Juanita Wilson whom it is impossible to imagine isn't from a trailer park somewhere in the impoverished American south. (I swear I'd read the ingredients panel on a Hostess snack cake were it written by her.)

This may be the most poorly titled film I've seen in a long time, the title suggesting the kind of story that we don't get. It's not an action flick. In fact, the genius of this film is that at almost no point is it about what you think it's going to be about. At one point it seems a light hearted caper, at another a wonderfully tragic and perverse love triangle, and at yet another a tale of revenge and regret and horrible choices to be made in horrible circumstances. But in that lies the movie's success. Separately these themes don't tell the story this movie is telling but woven together as they are the narrative theme coheres: being poor white trash is a desperate, powerless, anguishing situation, yet those who survive, survive. And sometimes we should pity them for it.

This film is why independent film exists and should continue to exist despite and especially because of the pressures the major motion picture industry exerts.