After a performance at a promising venue falls through, a punk band lands a gig at a neo-Nazi bar. But after the show, the band discovers a dead body in their green room. As the neo-Nazis attempt to cover the murder up - which includes erasing the band from the story - the band members realize that they'll have to fight their way out if they want to survive.
If there's any film from this year that perfectly achieved the "dark and gritty" aesthetic that the DC movies have been trying so hard to accomplish, it's Green Room. This film's story demanded it to be a visceral, intense experience, and it far and beyond achieves that. The film is absolutely unflinching in terms of violence, and doesn't hold back in any other regard. It's relentless in both tension and brutality, and it crafts an atmosphere that creates a consistent sense of unease.
Anton Yelchin was the driving force behind this film, and how perfectly he portrayed desperation was key to understanding where the protagonists are emotionally. All of the band members really nailed fear, and that fear was essential to the atmosphere of the overall film. The other members of the band - Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, and Callum Turner - were also very intense and believable, and they all had unique personality traits that never felt too convenient for their purpose in the story. Imogen Poots stood out to me among the protagonists, through the very unsettled look she always had. "Unsettling" is the word that's really at the core of this film.
The villains were just as important, and they were portrayed in a very interesting way. While being neo-Nazis obviously doesn't gain them a lot of sympathy, they're never portrayed as just bland and evil, and there are a few who get to show a much different side. Their leader, played by Patrick Stewart, was terrifying, mainly because he was simply quiet. He never has a moment where he exploded or freaked out; he just has a constantly calm and menacing demeanor. His casual approach to everything only made him more scary - which also made me wonder as an audience member how many times his group had been through a situation like this - and in terms of actors that I never expected to scare me, Patrick Stewart is high on that list.
The film has a very dark and dingy look, but rather than it feeling awkward, it feels stifling. The green room itself is a tiny space, seemingly without escape, and that everything around the band is unfamiliar and can be manipulated against them only increases the claustrophobic feeling. While the colours were muted and attention was never drawn too much towards the visuals, the film looks great; the slow, smooth movement of the story was very much reflected in the cinematography. The music was also very simple, and how the punk music from various bands were incorporated alongside the score created some interesting contrasts in tone. Sometimes a punk song would contribute more to a tense scene than instrumentals.
Green Room is both an effective thriller in that the main threat is very imposing and frightening, and that it's never clear which characters are going to make it out alive. It's not the kind of film that builds up any idea of hope; the odds are stacked so highly against the protagonists that it seems unlikely for anyone to make it out alive. The way that violence is portrayed, with gore in full view, adds to the uncertainty of survival, and the characters begin to feel resigned to their fates as they lose more and more of their friends.
The story is very tight and focused, and the fact that most of the action is so drawn-out and slowly paced is very effective. When the protagonists try to make their way through the bar, they do it very slowly and with a lot of hesitation, and often have to do some backtracking when they find themselves trapped. Even though the buildup to action grows and grows, there are moments where there will be a sudden moment of violence, out of nowhere. The unpredictable nature of the action only made it more engaging, and made the moments themselves more shocking.
That doesn't mean that the script was perfect, though; there were a few clunky lines here and there, and the ending left me a bit confused about what mood it was trying to portray. While I found that the story resolved itself in a way that made sense, it didn't really resonate with me in any way, and it was right on the edge of being satisfying. For as many impactful moments that the film has, I wish the ending could have lived up to some of them. The best way I can think to describe it is that the ending is built to really well, but when it happens, it doesn't land as well as I expected it to.
Green Room is a fantastically-crafted thriller, held together by a very capable director at the helm. It has a consistently uneasy atmosphere, which was only reinforced by the fantastic acting talent on display. It feels very real because the pace of action is set more slowly, but that never has any impact on the intensity (if anything, it defines it). Since the characters never do anything outside of the realm of possibility, the film's realism never lets up. Without that element, Green Room's intensity and brutality wouldn't have been nearly as effective. Luckily, if there's one word I can use to describe this film, it's "effective".
Anton Yelchin was the driving force behind this film, and how perfectly he portrayed desperation was key to understanding where the protagonists are emotionally. All of the band members really nailed fear, and that fear was essential to the atmosphere of the overall film. The other members of the band - Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, and Callum Turner - were also very intense and believable, and they all had unique personality traits that never felt too convenient for their purpose in the story. Imogen Poots stood out to me among the protagonists, through the very unsettled look she always had. "Unsettling" is the word that's really at the core of this film.
The villains were just as important, and they were portrayed in a very interesting way. While being neo-Nazis obviously doesn't gain them a lot of sympathy, they're never portrayed as just bland and evil, and there are a few who get to show a much different side. Their leader, played by Patrick Stewart, was terrifying, mainly because he was simply quiet. He never has a moment where he exploded or freaked out; he just has a constantly calm and menacing demeanor. His casual approach to everything only made him more scary - which also made me wonder as an audience member how many times his group had been through a situation like this - and in terms of actors that I never expected to scare me, Patrick Stewart is high on that list.
The film has a very dark and dingy look, but rather than it feeling awkward, it feels stifling. The green room itself is a tiny space, seemingly without escape, and that everything around the band is unfamiliar and can be manipulated against them only increases the claustrophobic feeling. While the colours were muted and attention was never drawn too much towards the visuals, the film looks great; the slow, smooth movement of the story was very much reflected in the cinematography. The music was also very simple, and how the punk music from various bands were incorporated alongside the score created some interesting contrasts in tone. Sometimes a punk song would contribute more to a tense scene than instrumentals.
The story is very tight and focused, and the fact that most of the action is so drawn-out and slowly paced is very effective. When the protagonists try to make their way through the bar, they do it very slowly and with a lot of hesitation, and often have to do some backtracking when they find themselves trapped. Even though the buildup to action grows and grows, there are moments where there will be a sudden moment of violence, out of nowhere. The unpredictable nature of the action only made it more engaging, and made the moments themselves more shocking.
That doesn't mean that the script was perfect, though; there were a few clunky lines here and there, and the ending left me a bit confused about what mood it was trying to portray. While I found that the story resolved itself in a way that made sense, it didn't really resonate with me in any way, and it was right on the edge of being satisfying. For as many impactful moments that the film has, I wish the ending could have lived up to some of them. The best way I can think to describe it is that the ending is built to really well, but when it happens, it doesn't land as well as I expected it to.
Green Room is a fantastically-crafted thriller, held together by a very capable director at the helm. It has a consistently uneasy atmosphere, which was only reinforced by the fantastic acting talent on display. It feels very real because the pace of action is set more slowly, but that never has any impact on the intensity (if anything, it defines it). Since the characters never do anything outside of the realm of possibility, the film's realism never lets up. Without that element, Green Room's intensity and brutality wouldn't have been nearly as effective. Luckily, if there's one word I can use to describe this film, it's "effective".
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