Film Review: Blow the Man Down

01:00 April 01, 2020
By: Fritz Esker
Now streaming on Amazon Prime, the new film Blow the Man Down is an effective small-town noir.


Written and directed by Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole, this film follows two sisters, rough-around-the-edges Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) and the more grounded Priscilla (Sophie Lowe), in a small Maine fishing town. Following their mother's death, Mary Beth meets a sketchy man in a bar. After she leaves with him, she sees something in his car that spooks her. So, she kills him, but in a way that might not meet the legal definition of self-defense. Priscilla helps her dispose of the body.

All of the above happens in the first 15 minutes (the film runs a tight 91 minutes), so it's not really a spoiler. But after that death, it becomes clear that there's a lot more going on in the town than meets the eye-and much of it centers around the town's brothel. Many of the town's most prominent ladies want the madam (Margo Martindale) to shut it down, but the madam is not playing along.

★★★ stars (out of four)

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