"This is a Nightmare": Green Room Review

"After witnessing a murder, a punk rock band is forced in a vicious fight for survival against a group of maniacal skinheads."

Directed and Written by: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Anton Yelchin
               Imogen Poots
               Alia Shawkat
               Joe Cole
               Callum Turner
               Patrick Stewart
               Macon Blair


Some films just leave you feeling completely satisfied and that's really it. Such is the case with Jeremy Saulnier's 3rd directing effort Green Room. Building onto his resume of sparse, taut thrillers, Saulnier delivers his most complete film to date. It's very rare that I see a film that I can find almost no complaints with and yet not feel completely blown away. While it's not my favorite movie of this year, it's absolutely what it sets out to be which is never a bad thing. What works here is damn near everything. It's a tautly written and directed film with no line of dialogue feeling wasted, story beats leading into each other fluidly and naturalistic acting from every performer. The setting and its people feel real, you never disbelieve for a second. For a tense, stark thriller involving Nazi punks, the gore is surprisingly sparse but when it does show up it's some gruesome stuff. I'm always down for a dark, gory flick and this delivers in spades. With all the praise I'm heaping onto it, this sounds like a flawless film- so why did I leave feeling good but not great about it? Well, let's take a look at the story.

We meet our punk rockers (The Ain't Rights) asleep in their van in a corn field. They're on their way from one gig to the next but are told upon arriving that the gig isn't going to check out. So instead they play for about 7 people in a small coffee house and make about $6 each. Naturally they're pissed but the dude who booked them the initial gig tells them that he has a line at a place his cousin works the door at, it's a bit out of the way but they'll be able to make up the money. Feeling at a loss, the band heads out to the venue and immediately get the sense that something isn't right. The bar is filled with Neo-Nazi skinheads but overall the show goes well, despite an initial bit of tension with the Ain't Rights playing a cover "Nazi Punks Can Fuck Off" by the Dead Kennedys. After the show, in the green room, the band witnesses a murder by one of these Nazi Punks and from here on the film becomes an exercise in nail biting tension. It soon becomes apparent that the band isn't going to be allowed to leave and almost immediately the film becomes a war of attrition as both the band and the skinheads attempt to "fix" the situation. The fix being, the band needs to escape and skinheads need them dead.

What really works well is the absolute naturalism that this film exudes and it's something that Saulnier seems to be perfecting as he goes. I haven't seen his first film, a horror comedy called Murder Party but his second film, Blue Ruin seems like the logical predecessor to Green Room. Both films are an exercise in sparseness and tension working together to create an uncomfortable feeling of dread. Here, Saulnier pumps the brakes at just the right time but then floors it into overdrive before you have a chance to breathe. Surprisingly, for a film about a group of skinheads hunting people, the gore is light. This isn't a bloodbath of a film but when gore does rear its head, it's not wasted. It's pretty unsettling stuff with one band member having their arm torn to shreds by what appears to be a machete. The shots (DP work is by Sean Porter) are also gorgeous. Amidst the tight, claustrophobic setting of the green room, there are sprawling establishing shots from above. The camera work leaves nothing in frame that doesn't need to be and it's really just one of the most well shot, low key films I've seen this year. The strongest aspect of the entire film is Saulnier's screenwriting. I mean this absolutely when I say that no story beat is left unresolved, no line is wasted. This is one of the tightest films I've seen in recent memory. Saulnier knows the rules of great storytelling inside and out. There's a good bit about "Who would be your desert island band?" that pops in and out of the film that pays off very well. I honestly was just floored by how well Saulnier displays his storytelling prowess in his third effort writing and directing. I look for him to be picked up by a major studio any day now because a filmmaker working within this tight of parameters and succeeding is so rare.

Adding to the naturalism are the performances. No one feels like a character here, you see these people react to situations and you can see yourself in a lot of the band members. Anton Yelchin is a standout here and his character feels the most real. When he's hurt, you feel it too. He doesn't just "suck it up" and forge ahead right away. He cries, he freaks out, he crawls on the ground reeling and generally reacts like a person would in this situation. He isn't a badass action hero that you believe will save the day and honestly, no one in this film really is. Joe Cole and Callum Turner are probably the least "realistic" only in the sense that they come off as a bit one note compared to Yelchin. They're both angry guys with one prone to attack and the other prone to defend. Cole's character seemingly exists to fill that "badass" role but it doesn't stretch the line of unbelievability. He's strong both in will and force and his resolve leads to a good payoff. Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat is pretty good as one of two women in the film but here, gender isn't made into anything important. These are just people existing and trying to survive. Shawkat does really well with a pretty limited character.

Aside from Yelchin, Imogen Poots gets the most character work as a Nazi-ish girl that is most involved with the initial murder. Her character seems to be a relatively new recruit to this awful cause but you never get the sense that she believes in what this group is doing. She has a line or two that sort of explain how she ended up with this people but her vacant stares, hollow voice and general stillness suggest that she's just a lost soul looking for a cause and wound up in the absolute worst place. As for the rest of the Nazi punks, it would've been extremely easy to just forget about fleshing them out. Aside from maybe 2 or 3 of them, the rest could've just been brain dead minions serving an insidious cause. Saulnier is interested in more than that though because even though these dudes are the worst of the worst, he devotes time into giving them even the smallest of personalities. This allows you to see them as real people, despite the fact that you can't sympathize or relate to them. There isn't a single character that doesn't feel like they didn't have a life before and after this movie, and that we're just seeing a window into a brief, fucked up period of their lives. The best example of this is Macon Blair. Blair has been in every film Saulnier has done and his performance here is in a word, spectacular. He brings a subtle brilliance to his role as a new recruit to the skinheads' cause. He's wrapped up in something that he doesn't fully understand or even maybe believe in. With just a look he conveys so much about himself and you have an understanding that this guy is regretfully going along for a ride that he's not entirely sure he signed up for. There's just a quiet brilliance to how scared yet confident and timid yet proud he looks. He's easily the most compelling character despite such limited time on the screen. He's pained at what he's doing and yet he does it, he's a contradiction in a world of evil Nazi punks without redemption.

As good as this film is, I did find myself just a bit let down by some of it. When I read about this, every headline I saw spoke to it being a "Patrick Stewart Backwoods Nazi Flick." I mean, who wouldn't be hooked by that? Sir Patrick Stewart is one of the most compelling screen presences we have. Now, I'm not going to say that he wasn't compelling here but he was easily what I was most excited for and I left feeling less excited than I'd have liked to be. He's very good in it but I have to say that I was let down by how little he actually does. He works well as the order giver and the unseen force that the punks keep mentioning in the beginning. He undoubtedly oozes with menace but I was never as pulled in by him as I wanted to be.

The other smallish letdown for me is the ending. I'm obviously  not going to say what happens but I just feel that for a film with an insane eye for building tension and dread, the payoff is little bit of a whimper. At least compared with what the the first 90 minutes were. It's by no means a bad or even a weak ending but I think I just felt that there would've been more of an "OOMPH." Then again, knowing Saulnier's prior film and the minimal presence this film has, I can't say it's surprising or that it doesn't work; it fits with the film's realistic nature. It just didn't affect me as much I'd have liked but I know it'll work for a lot of people.

A24, the small-but-VERY-much-on-the-rise film distributor was the company behind Green Room and once again they've delivered a solid, quality flick. Is it on the level of other A24 projects like The Witch, Ex Machina or Best Picture nominee Room? No, I wouldn't say so. However, it's another example that this company has to be THE studio to look out for down the road. They're doing interesting, original films with directors yearning to tell story-driven, character focused films. I went into this wanting to love it and came away only liking it, very much in fact so it's another win for A24 and more importantly another win for Jeremy Saulnier (and his "muse" Macon Blair). A few quibbles here or there cannot detract that this is absolutely one of the best films of this year so far. If you're tired of seeing Superman fight Batman or Captain America go at it with Iron Man, this is a breath of fresh air. Don't go to this expecting action packed insanity because that's not what it is. It's white knuckle, quietly intense survival flick that works on almost every level imaginable.

8/10