![]() Tipping its hat to “Fargo” immediately after this scene, the film serves up a sly nod to the Coen brothers’ sub-zero crime classic: a high-angle shot of a snowy parking lot, framed just as Roger Deakins might have done it. The question that lingers is how long their luck may last. In taking his own life, the dead man saved theirs. Moments after that opening gun blast, “Game of Thrones” star Kit Harrington (sporting a sleazy handlebar mustache) and Scoot McNairy (as his hangdog accomplice) show up, too late to save the friend who offed himself. Fortunately, it’s the only one that rings false in director Rod Blackhurst’s otherwise tense, no-nonsense thriller, a standout of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival that merits comparison to “Breaking Bad” or “Hell or High Water,” but with snow instead of sand. It’s a jarring - and jarringly artificial - scene. The camera pulls back to reveal the same man, his face half-missing, a briefcase full of cash propped open on his desk. Without warning, a shotgun goes off, splattering the photo and the wall behind it in blood and brain matter. ![]() On a desk in a bland business office sits a family portrait, depicting a proud Marine and his family. A slow-burn Rocky Mountain noir set along the corridor between Billings, Mont., and the Canadian border - a cold, lonely stretch of highway shared by salesmen and smugglers alike - “ Blood for Dust” establishes a ruthless sense of sangfroid from its opening shot.
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