“Cold in July” isn’t a typical revenge story, even while it retains pronounced elements of sin, murder, and paranoia. It’s an adaptation of a Joe R. Lansdale’s 1989 novel, yet it takes on a special screen magic in the care of co-writer/director Jim Mickle, who knows exactly what buttons to push when it comes to the saga of an innocent man pulled into a scheme of murder and survival. Thickly Texan, richly performed, and teeming with nail-biting sequences built around a riveting pulp story, “Cold in July” is aggressive and precisely crafted, playing with grim genre highlights in an excited manner that suggests Mickle was smiling throughout the entire production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com