Green Room (2016)

Green Room (R)

"Wolfenstein 2D"

A small time Metal music band becomes stranded in Oregon when their gig cancels.  They accept a make up gig from a fan in order to generate enough funds to get home:  a rural backwater club that just so happens to be patronized by Neo-Nazis.  When things go terribly wrong the band is stuck with their backs against the wall in Director Jeremy Saulnier's gritty and intense Green Room.

When Saulnier's Blue Ruin (he must have a thing for colors in his titles) hit the indy scene it caused a sensation with its dynamic thrill vs budget ratio.  In Green Room he raises the bar even higher, the look is much more evened out and professional, the thrills more smartly paced, the acting and situations more believable, the plot more brisk, the characters more expendable.  This is one of those films where you can totally put yourself in the protagonists shoes, and are doubly shocked when characters are suddenly and violently killed.  The cast is mostly young, bearded and realistic, with perhaps the most notable exception being the ol' Captain himself, Patrick Stewart (STTNG).  We all should have guessed, he was a natural Skin Head all along!

Much like Ruin before it, Green Room does have some issues.  Audio is either unclear or not mixed properly, it can be a pain to understand clearly some important moments.  Sometimes motivations are just as unclear as the audio.  And the director's motif may also veer a little too close to previous efforts, violent white-trash shoot outs in the woods anyone?

Yet it all doesn't fall apart at the end like Blue, it remains tense and full of anxiety until it's last few moments.  A survival tale with a real sense of dread and chock full of surprises, Green Room achieves exactly what it sets out to do more competently than anyone would have guessed.  Now lets see if the filmmakers can get out of their comfort zones and make something truly great since from the looks of things they have the talent to do so (also good choice on the CCR).

7.5 Red Laces out of 10 (GOOD)