Green Room (Blu-ray/ DVD)
Padraig Cotter
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Starring Anton Yelchin, Patrick Stewart, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier
Distributed by Lionsgate
There were high expectations for Green Room, director Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to the acclaimed Blue Ruin. His new movie follows a punk band that performs a gig at a neo-Nazi venue to scrap together some quick cash, only to witness a murder backstage. They soon find themselves trapped within their green room by the venue’s owner (Patrick Stewart), and they have to fight their way out or die trying.
Mostly the latter, in this case.
Sometimes you think you’re desensitised to onscreen violence – after all, beheadings and disembowelments have become weekly entertainment thanks to “The Walking Dead“ and “Game of Thrones“ – and then a movie like Green Room comes along. The violence portrayed here is deeply personal, messy and painful. Good and bad alike die in awful ways and the movie never glorifies any of it. It’s very much a companion piece to Blue Ruin in that sense, where normal people get caught up in the ugly violence.
Saulnier proves to be a master of milking suspense, with the tension often reaching suffocating levels before violence explodes. While the setup owes a debt to the lean, stripped-back thrillers John Carpenter used to make, Saulnier makes Green Room its own beast. Expectations are subverted at every turn; escape plans backfire horribly, and characters that feel important are taken out without a moment’s pause.
That’s not to say the film is a total slog, though. The director slips in lots of dry humour that, while it doesn’t necessarily lighten the mood, it makes it tolerable. The performances are grounded and naturalistic for the most part, with Patrick Stewart being quietly menacing as the villain of the piece. He doesn’t chew the scenery or deliver any monologues; he just logically orchestrates a horrible campaign of violence to save his own skin. Tragically Green Room was one of the final films for the late Anton Yelchin, with the young actor being typically great as the very reluctant leader of the trapped band.
The story takes several unexpected turns throughout and wisely doesn’t portray it’s villains as one-dimensional thugs; they all have their reasons for doing what they do, ugly as they might be. The film also has a dour, muted look that ups the intensity when things go south. Saulnier obviously understands the punk music scene too, which helps give it an authentic flavor; some of the music is pretty badass too.
Green Room is a brutal survival horror thriller that will unnerve even hardened genre fans, but it’s the work of a director with a vision. The character work is great and the shocks feel organic, and while it can be a tough watch it remains one of the best thrillers of recent years.
You’ll also never look at box cutters the same way again…
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Director Jeremy Saulnier
- “Into the Pit: Making Green Room” Featurette
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Film
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Special Features
Categorized:Reviews
