Tomato Red

This article is about the 2017 crime film. For the color, see Shades of red § Tomato.
Tomato Red
Directed byJuanita Wilson
Screenplay byJuanita Wilson
Based onTomato Red
by Daniel Woodrell
Produced byDaniel Bekerman
James Flynn
Elizabeth Gill
StarringJulia Garner
CinematographyPiers McGrail
Edited byNathan Nugent
Music byThomas Haugh
Kevin Murphy
Stephen Shannon
Release date
  • March 3, 2017 (2017-03-03)
Running time
112 minutes
CountriesIreland
Canada
LanguageEnglish

Tomato Red (also known as Tomato Red: Blood Money) is a 2017 Irish-Canadian crime film written and directed by Juanita Wilson and starring Jake Weary and Julia Garner. It is based on the novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell.[1]

Plot

Sammy is released from prison and moves into a trailer and gets a low level job. On Friday he goes to a bar, starts drinking, and befriends some locals. After spending the weekend with them smoking meth, they convince him to break into a wealthy family's house. The car that takes him to the house abandons him, as he drinks liquor and passes out.

He awakens to find himself tied to a chair, by brother and sister, Jammalee and Jason. They act as though it is their house and eventually untie him. When the police show up, all three flee. Jammalee invites Sammy to her trailer but he returns to his trailer instead. He confronts the people who abandoned him, beating a man and getting his belongings. He then decides to go to Jammalee's.

Sammy ends up living with Jammalee and Jason in their brother's room who is currently incarcerated. Their mother, Bev lives in a home next to theirs and works as a prostitute. Sammy befriends all three. Sammy and the two siblings continue to break into wealthy people's homes and blackmail them with information they find. This eventually leads to Jason being murdered. A local police officer pays them off with $5,500, instructing them to leave it alone. He claims people just wanted to beat Jason in order to send him a message but things got out of hand. Soon after, Jammalee leaves town alone and Sammy confronts and fights the townspeople.

Cast

Reception

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 67% rating, based on 6 reviews.[2] Paddy Kehoe of RTÉ.ie awarded the film four stars out of five.[3] Donald Clarke of The Irish Times awarded it three stars out of five.[1] Gwilyn Mumford of The Guardian gave the film two stars out of five.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Clarke, Donald (2 March 2017). "Tomato Red review: A hard-boiled trailer-park tragedy". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Tomato Red". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  3. ^ Kehoe, Paddy (6 March 2017). "Tomato Red: Small town America through an Irish lens". RTÉ.ie. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  4. ^ Mumford, Gwilyn (24 February 2017). "Tomato Red review – Ozarks lowlife drama a little too beautiful for its own good". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2018.