The idea of the lover that got away, the one you can never completely get out of your mind, has haunted artists for generations. (Barry Manilow built an entire career out of it.) And if “Blue Jay” doesn’t necessarily upend this nostalgic conceit, it does at least provide a platform for two extraordinary lead performances by Sarah Paulson and Mark Duplass.
Written by Duplass (and performed with lots of improvisation) and directed by Alex Lehmann (a veteran cinematographer and camera operator making his feature debut), “Blue Jay” is as indie as indie gets, from the black-and-white photography (by Lehmann) to the two-hander set-up (the only other person with dialogue is a liquor-store clerk played by veteran actor Clu Gulager) to the walking-and-talking set-up of the story.