Green Room DVD Review

Mein Band 

Released : May 13th 2016

Certificate : 18

Director :  Jeremy Saulnier

Cast : Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat,  Joe Cole

Plot : A down on their luck punk band take a last minute gig at a neo-Nazi club. After witnessing a horrific act, the band become hostages within the green room.

After gaining festival and critical praise with violent indie thriller Blue Ruin, writer director Jeremy Saulnier returns with Green Room. Most notable in its cast is not only the heavy weight of Patrick Stewart, who embodies the leading neo-Nazi, but also the late departed Anton Yelchin, who is most famous for his role in the recent star trek films. Very similar in structure to Blue Ruin, we have characters who are quickly set up to do battle in a film which depicts a brutally violent winding road of the characters survival. This film also marks what the director calledanother film in his unofficial ‘inept protagonist trilogy’.

From this set up, of inept protagonist, confined setting of film, feature of neo-Nazi and a director who’s breakout film is a violent unusual thriller, a pretty clear picture can begin to be built as to the nature of the film. This is a white knuckled survivalist thrill ride, made in the same vain as slasher horror films as the characters get picked off one at a time for the enjoyment of the audience. Some have claimed that the film spills into the horror genre due to the extent of the violence in the film, this doesn’t seem to ring true due to the way the film is quiet self aware and sarcastic in some scenes with the topic matter. Along this vain the film is very much aware of what it is in structure, which was a wise choice from Jeremy Saulnier as it made the film a lot more entertaining, with a tone and mood which is near perfect.

There are always flaws with a film of the style, which will offend audience depending on your inclination to this type of film and willingness to suspend criticism for the sake of ‘fun’. The characters themselves are likely going to be the issue that many audience will find with the film. Despite the striking good performance from both the well known and unknown actors of the punk band, they lack audience empathy. This ties in with the concept of the inept protagonist. Blue Ruin contained equally inept characters, but was able to build a higher level of emotive connection with the protagonist that you were more invested in the story. With Green Room the punk band aren’t given a back story, nor have much likability. For some this is not an issue and can relish the thrilling aspects of the film without any connection to the characters, others will see little interest or justification for the violence inflicted on them.

Despite this flaw and other issues, Green Room delivers a great level of edge of your seat thrills and tense atmosphere that keeps you in the palm of the movies hand. This effect is achieve via a combination of the brutal violence on screen, the very high standard performances throughout and the craft of Saulnier. While Saulneir might not have as much imagination with the dialogue or story of his writing, he is able to build the tension superbly as he did before with Blue Ruin, and here the claustrophobic environment is an asset to his work. While this in essence is a film style that has been done many times before in its different guises, Saulnier attitude towards the subject matter and a real fell for the humorously dark tension builder, Green Room is a riot of a time which captures you while you’re watching.

Verdict : A thrilling fun time, which rekindles the film type of watching the characters fall one at a time in spectacular style.

Verdict : 4/5

Quote : Nazi punks! Fuck off!