Blue Car is an early 2000s high school drama detailing the relationship between a troubled female teen and her 50-something English teacher. It features two well-placed and believable leads, and some interesting observations regarding men/ male parents. Here from Imprint is a new Blu-Ray of the film- taking in an HD scan, as well as a few extras.

Blue Car is a 2002 US indie film. It was the first feature from Sacramento-born writer & director Karen Moncrieff. In total she has nine features to her name- these go from mystery crime drama The Dead Girl (2006), Onto courtroom drama The Trials of Cate McCall (2013) , and PG13 family ghost story The Keeping House (2017). Blue Car is a competently made debut film from Moncrieff- yes there are a few issues, but these can largely be forgiven.
 
The film's lead character is 16 or so teen Meg Denny, and is played by Agnes Bruckner- who since started acting in the late 80’s, and has to date racked up fifty-plus acting roles. The film opens with her reading a poem in class about her father leaving when she was younger (in a blue car, hence the title). Her teacher the lightly greying Auster (David Strathairn) is rather moved by her poem, so he suggests she enter a national literacy competition.

Also added in the mix is Meg's younger sister Lily (Regan Arnold) who has been very traumatised by her father's departure- so she now self-harms, and as the film goes on, she stops eating. There’s the pair's mother Daine (Margaret Collin) who is trying to further her career leaving Meg to often look after her younger sister, and when she is home the two constantly buck horns.
 
As the film moves on the relationship between Meg and her teacher grows- with him becoming the person she goes to with any issue/problem. As this happens you start to wonder about Auster’s motivation- is he generally taken by her work, cares about her & wants to be the father figure she is missing. Or is there something a little seedier/ manipulative going on here? This guessing game is kept up for the first three-quarters of the film, and I won’t give away which way it goes.
 
Acting-wise Bruckner is very believable as the trying-to-keep-it-all-together teen, and she looks very much like the girl next door- really selling her role even more. Strathairn cleverly plays his role with subtlety & depth, and you are truly unsure of his true motivation for much of the film’s runtime. Sadly, the supporting cast is a little mixed- Collin’s feels a little cliché as the constantly berating mother. Arnold as the highly troubled younger sister switches between being rather amateurish / a little flat., to having quite a few effective scenes later on.

The other slight issue here is the use of strummed instrumental folk-rock, and singer-songwriter indie rock. These often feel too overbearing, and rather try to push one’s emotional buttons in a rather contrived manner. Lastly, a few of the minor plot points don’t quite add up/ make sense…but I can’t discuss these, as it would mean spoiling the film.
 
The film runs at just under the hour and a half minutes mark- with one largely being held by what’s going on & how it will resolve- which to be honest was fairly surprising in where it all goes. I’d say if you enjoy more (largely) realistic & not too Hollywood-focused teen dramas- then I feel you'll genuinely be taken by what Blue Car has to offer, and it makes interesting points about role models, & the difficult time between being a child & an adult.
 

This recent Blu-Ray features a new 2k scan- this looks wonderful clear, crisp, and clean. On the new extras side, we get three on-camera interviews with members of the crew. Justify Each Cut: Editing ‘Blue Car (19.19) which is with editor Toby Yates. He starts off by giving background into how he got into editing, and the first film he was the key editor on 1997's Cleopatra’s Second Husband. We find out he got involved in Blue Car after the director reached out to him via email. Shades Of Blue: Shooting ‘Blue Car’ (18.51) which is with director of photography Rob Sweeney. He begins by talking about his early influences French New Wave & Italian neo-realism, moving on to mention key figures he worked with when learning his craft. Moving onto how he got to work on the film. Lastly, we have Sadly Timeless: Designing ‘Blue Car’ (17.45) this is with production designer Kristan Andrews. She gives us a brief bio, finding out she started as an actor before going back to train as a production designer. She talks about how her career was very much split between family & more indie dramas. She met director Karen Moncrieff at a kung fu class, and after a year of building up a friendship, she asked if Kristan would work on the film.

On the archive side of things, we get a Commentary track by director Karen Moncrieff, and a selection of deleted scenes (with optional director’s commentary). The release is presented in an Ltd slip featuring unique artwork. This release Ltd to 15000 copies worldwide.

Blue Car is one of the more thought-provoking high school dramas with two well-placed and realized leads. With this new Imprint release giving us a good mix of new and archive extras- so if you’re a fan of indie dramas it’s certainly worth a look.