Review
Green Room (2015)
Long before A24 became a household name—they are a household name, right?—I tried to talk The Boy into seeing this horror movie, Green Room, basically going in blind. He hemmed and hawed and it vanished. (It did not make its money back on initial release.)
It became something of a cult classic, popping up infrequently in revivals, but never at a time we could catch it. So even though it was incredibly awkward, we went down to Brain Dead Studios on Saturday at 10:15PM to check it out. Who knows when there's going to be another chance?
When the story opens I heard a voice that took me back. One of the last roles of the late, lamented Anton Yelchin. He plays Pat, part of a punk rock band—well, okay everything says "punk" but it sounded more like metal to me, and I am definitely not an expert, but when they're talking about "desert island bands" it's all Ozzy and what I wouldn't call "punk".
Anyway, this band is siphoning gas on its way to some northwestern town that nets them a few—very few—bucks and to make it up to them the booker says, "Here's a gig that'll pay $350."
Great. They siphon their way to a rural gig and discover it's a neo-Nazi hangout.
Wait! Come back! It's 2015, and half the world hadn't fallen into calling the other half Nazis yet! This is not a political film in any meaningful way. Instead, it's more like Assault on Precinct 13. It's a survival horror, in other words, and a very good one.
Speaking of things that aren't done well often these days, the poster for this is excellent, but combined with the title, it made me think of psychological horror. That's what "room" movies are, right? Backrooms and Room and The Blue Room and Red Rooms and White Room and The Room. OK, The Room is a special sort of audience participation psychological horror.
It's not a game either side is good at. Besides poor impulse control, the Nazis are widely varying in their abilities. Some are downright dunces (plausibly). Others are far more effective—but are also hamstrung by their leader (Patrick Stewart, doing a Northwestern-ish accent) whose primary concern is making sure the crimes can all be covered up.
Like all great horror movies, per Joe Bob Briggs, anyone can die at any time. This keeps the action effective.
The colors are great here. The movie is not color coded. The scenes that should be dingy, are. The Pacific Northwest is rather beautiful and the movie shows that in a kind of Shining-esque drone shot.
The violence is graphic, when it comes. Compound fractures you can see and feel. Deep cuts into arms and skulls. A gutting to confirm a kill. Wound treatment that borders on looking worse than the wounds.
This is not for the faint-of-heart. But if you can stomach it, it's a good, brisk, ninety-minutes. It has a dark sense of humor that mirrors life and reminds one of the adage "Hitler's dogs loved him."
Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier does an excellent job. Some might argue the setup and denouement are both too long, but there was always enough amusing stuff going on to hold my interest. Cinematographer Sean Porter deserves a shout-out. He has gone on to many award nominations.
The acting is all top-notch, which is good, because we never know which actor is going to be center-stage. Anton Yelchin fades out at one point and Joe Cole ("Peaky Blinders", "Gangs of London") fades in. Alia Shawkat (probably best known for "Arrested Development") fades out and Imogen Poots (whose name always strikes me as criminally whismical) fades in.
This is done on the Nazi side as well. There's not a lot of backstory, so we learn about our characters through the actions they take and, ultimately this really is an ensemble piece!
We saw a late night show, as mentioned, and the sparse crowd had "pre-gamed" so there was a lot of hootin'-and-hollerin' there in the Fairfax district. That might be the best way to see this film.
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