Tribeca Film Festival 2019 Review: BLOW THE MAN DOWN

Screening at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival as part of the U.S. Narrative Competition, Blow the Man Down tells the story of two sisters in a small seaside town in Maine whose mourning for the recent death of their mother is cut short when they suddenly need to cover up a crime. The feature debut of writer-director duo Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy has earned many comparisons to the classic work of the Coen Brothers thanks to its quirky ensemble of characters and streak of dark humor.

Yet to stop there does the film a disservice, for even though it bears undeniable similarities to films like Fargo in terms of tone and small-town setting, Blow the Man Down is a unique film that deserves to be recognized as such.

Murder by Death

After a long illness, Mary Margaret Connolly, the mother of Priscilla (Sophie Lowe) and Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor), passes away. She leaves her daughters with a mountain of debt, a struggling fishmonger business, and the possibility that they’ll lose the house they grew up in. The older, more pragmatic Priscilla is ready to shoulder these burdens and take over the business, but the younger, more freewheeling Mary Beth wants nothing more than to escape their tiny town and go away to college.

On the night of their mother’s funeral, a furious Mary Beth storms off to a local bar and gets involved with a man who quickly reveals himself as bad news. After seeing blood and hair in the trunk of his car, Mary Beth fears for her life and, in a moment of drunken panic, kills him. She and Priscilla dispose of the body and stew in the fear that they’ll be found out. Sure enough, a body washes ashore in town the next morning – but shockingly, it’s not the one they’re responsible for.

The victim is a woman, a prostitute who worked for Enid (Margo Martindale), a friend of Priscilla and Mary Beth’s mother and the madam of the local brothel. Since the death of Mary Margaret, who had defended Enid’s right to run her business, the rest of their group of friends want Enid to shut down the brothel. This posse of older women, led by the surprisingly pugnacious Susie Gallagher (June Squibb), is determined to connect Enid to the woman’s murder and force her to close up shop once and for all. But Enid has worked hard to secure her position of power in this town, and she won’t give it up easily. In fact, she’ll even manipulate the daughters of her recently deceased friend to save her own skin.

By the Sea

Blow the Man Down is rich in atmosphere thanks to the attention to detail paid in creating the film’s very specific world; one sees not only the influence of the Coen brothers and their body of work but also shades of Kenneth Lonergan’s elegiac Manchester by the Sea. The film is gorgeously shot by Todd Banhazl, with every shot emphasizing the bleak beauty of the craggy coastal town the Connollys call home. One can easily see why Priscilla would want to stay there and yet also why Mary Beth would be so desperate to leave.

The recurring scenes of fishermen singing sea shanties help set the mood – one of melancholy, tinged with a strange nostalgia – and give Blow the Man Down its own Greek chorus of sorts. The rest of the film’s music, composed by Jordan Dykstra and Brian McOmber, is equally, fittingly haunting. This is a stylistic choice that could have come across as silly but in the adept hands of Savage Cole and Krudy feels absolutely suited to the story at hand.

Throughout Blow the Man Down, it is clear that this is a story being told by women, about women, which is an incredibly refreshing concept for a thriller. The ensemble of characters is not only largely women but elderly women at that – a rarity in cinema across the board, let alone in a genre generally dominated by the most masculine of men. The only real downside, if it can even be phrased as such, is that the two young women at the center of Blow the Man Down are nowhere near as charismatic and compelling as the older women who surround them. Priscilla and Mary Beth spend most of the film making bad decisions and then whining about them, which is realistic, to be sure, but not very engaging. As a result, the Connolly sisters come off as the embodiment of every spoiled millennial trope.

Conversely, to see legendary actors like June Squibb and Margo Martindale (whose gleefully sinister performance as Enid is a joy to watch) facing off onscreen in a beauty salon and sniping at each other about crochet is a necessary reminder to Hollywood at large that older women can still light up the screen with fire and fury, and deserve to be offered the kinds of meaty roles that enable them to do so. It’s also a reminder that women filmmakers like Savage Cole and Krudy deserve more opportunities to tell stories centered on such characters.

Blow the Man Down: Conclusion

Blow the Man Down is a slow-burn of the story, and you might come away still feeling a bit unsatisfied with the resolution – or lack thereof – of the film’s central mystery. But thanks to the confident and stylish direction of Savage Cole and Krudy, it will linger in your mind and make you long to see what these two women will make next.

What do you think? Does Blow the Man Down sound like a unique take on the small-town thriller? Share your thoughts in the comments below.