Green Room (2016) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Horror | Music | Thriller

Tagline: Now. Whatever you saw or did. Is no longer my concern. But let's be clear. It won't end well.

Members (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat) of a punk-rock band and a tough young woman Anber (Imogen Poots) battle murderous white supremacists at a remote Oregon roadhouse.
A young punk band, finishing up their self-managed tour, gets a last-minute invitation to play at an isolated backwoods venue. The gig turns sinister when the band members discover that the club is a haven for neo-Nazis, led by Darcy (Patrick Stewart).

Storyline: A band straying into a secluded part of the Pacific Northwest stumbles onto a horrific act of violence. Because they are the only witnesses, they become the targets of a terrifying gang of skinheads who want to make sure all the evidence is eliminated. Written by Aymanati

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, July 9, 2016 The "glamour" of show business maybe finds one of its more generally misunderstood terms with regard to a so-called "green room", a waiting area of sorts which is frequently not only not green but just as frequently barely big enough to really be accurately considered an actual room. Green Room doesn't much care about the fineries of the so-called "entertainment industry", at least insofar as it's apprehended by the public at large, and instead exploits a gritty, unvarnished and ultimately downright frightening universe that is centered both around the punk rock scene and skinhead groups. The titular place is indeed a waiting area, but it's a dirty, unkempt region of an equally dilapidated locale where a punk rock concert is being held to entertain the "troops", in this case jackboot wearing thugs who are obviously white supremacists and who just may be running a little heroin operation on the side. When the band at the center of the film inadvertently witnesses the aftermath of a horrific murder, they're held captive more or less in the confined space, as various machinations outside unfold as the club's owner, Darcy (Patrick Stewart), decides how to best handle the situation. Things are no better inside, however, with one of the Darcy's henchmen stuck in the room with the band, along with another interloper who was a friend of the victim, and tensions between all the inhabitants reaching a boiling point in short order. Green Room is the brainchild of Jeremy Saulnier, the same writer-director who created Blue Ruin (which may lead some wags to wonder whether he's planning on pulling a Three Colors trifecta). Saulnier is on hand in a supplement mentioning how after Blue Ruin he really didn't want to do another ensemble piece confined (largely) to a single space, but that's exactly what Green Room is. The film is often squirm inducing, due to both some visceral special effects work regarding some of the injuries doled out, but also due to an increasingly claustrophobic emotional ambience that is only exacerbated by the incessant thumping of punk rock that's supposedly emanating from the nearby performance space. Green Room may also now sadly attract unexpected viewers due to the recent passing of its star, Anton Yelchin (Star Trek 4K), a promising young actor whose life and career were cut short recently in an almost unimaginable accident involving his own (apparently recalled) Jeep.

Before Green Room gets to its questionably colored main location, some introductory scenes offer up quick vignettes of the hardscrabble "tour" (if it can even be called that) of the Ain't Rights, a punk rock aggregation which is wending its way through the Pacific Northwest in their funky van, one which frequently runs out of gas, necessitating various band members pilfering petrol from any cars they can find, since they (as any self- respecting musician) don't have any money to speak of. Some online sources detail an early scene as taking place in Seaside, Oregon, but to this Oregonian, it sure looks a lot more like Astoria, a gorgeous little town at the mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean. One way or the other, a planned on gig has evaporated, though Tad (David W. Thompson), the guy supposedly offering them the work, manages to come up with a "consolation prize" of sorts, playing a skinhead "festival" nearer to Portland. (Again, as an Oregonian, I found this part of the film a little distasteful, as Portland's vaunted "keep (us) weird" ethos is not exactly tolerant of any sort of hate group, though it's notable that one very highly publicized white supremacist fueled killing did take place here decades ago.)

The bulk of Green Room plays out as a kind of cat and mouse game between the band members, all of whom are struggling to find some sort of "hidden" escape route from their surrounded location, and Darcy and his thugs, who are just as intent on getting inside to "erase" the threat of witnesses. There's a little vagueness about what exactly is going on in the early moments, when the murder is apparently covered up by one of the henchmen for reasons that initially seem to be connected to the fact that the group is comprised of skinheads. That turns out to be a bit of misdirection, but the upshot is the same, with band member Pat (Anton Yelchin) and apparently innocent bystander Amber (Imogen Poots) ending up as the focal couple, especially as a gruesomely increasing body count begins to accrue.

While some elements of Green Room are relatively rote, at least within the confines of a "traditional" horror film tied to a "pick 'em off one by one" approach, the general context of the film is so unusual and viscerally presented that a lot of the story tends to resonate in rather remarkable ways. While there are some passing tips of the Freudian hat toward psychological underpinnings (an especially chilling moment comes when the killer "confesses" to the band that it was their music that drove him to his act), Green Room frankly isn't all that interested in exploring the interior world of its characters. That might have been an insurmountable obstacle in a more mundane setting, but here the surface is compelling enough that viewers can almost intuitively discern the needed subtext.

Those interested may want to read my interview with Green Room's dialect coach Mary McDonald-Lewis here.

Green Room's unusual setting provides most of the interest in what boils down to more traditional horror fare at its base level. Performances are generally riveting, especially Stewart as a ne'er-do-well who is miles—indeed, universes—away from a certain Jean-Luc Picard. Technical merits are very good (video) to excellent (audio), and for those with a tolerance for some pretty gruesome violence, Green Room comes Recommended.

[CSW] -3.4- Not being a punk-rock fan I don't know if the band members are really true to life but this was still a really well done thriller/suspense/survival movie. They did what not enough movies do nowadays; they got a bunch of GOOD actors who know what they're doing. Here they got Anton Yelchin (R.I.P. at age 27) (a very underrated actor who plays Chekov in the new Star Trek movies), Imogen Poots (Need for Speed and the Jimi Hendrix movie), Ali Shawkat (Arrested Development) and of course Patrick Stewart (X-Men and Star Trek: Next Generation) who all understand the genre and tone perfectly. The movie is designed to make you feel very claustrophobic at times. There are also some grossed out violent moments that aren't for the faint of heart but it's not gratuitous torture like Hostel or anything. However, it is worth mentioning the film's absolutely stunning depiction of horrific injuries: the camera looks at them precisely as we would if we were trapped with the characters, too. It's so real that it leaves the audience gasping. It's well used and shows you how high the stakes are in this situation. All in all it's just a well done movie. If you like suspense/thrillers this is your movie.
[V3.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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