Mikes Film Talk

Imogen Poots and Anton Yelchin nail in is the 2016 horror film Green Room. The film is odd and quirky in its delivery but that adds to the fun.

Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier offers this film up on a cheap platter. He has already given us Murder Party and Blue Ruin. He specializes in these low/no budget gems.

Green Room has the sad distinction of being the last film released to star Anton Yelchin before his untimely death on June 19, 2016. The film follows the misfortune of a struggling punk band who stumble onto a murder while playing at a skinhead roadhouse.

Saulnier, whose debut feature length film was the brilliant low/no-budget offering Murder Party, has a knack for making American films that have a distinctly English feel to them.  Taking a note  from such talented Brit filmmakers like Dog Soldiers by Neil Marshall. Marshall wrote and directed the werewolf picture. He specializes in violent and terse thrillers like Doomsday and the gloriously scary, and all female, The Descent before moving onto mainstream television.)

Yelchin plays the meekest member of a punk band. He later teams up with Poots as they fight against a group of white supremacists tasked with killing them.  Patrick Stewart plays wonderfully against type. He is the club owner who calmly arranges for all the witnesses of the murder to be disposed of.

The story

Green Room, for the most part, takes place in a claustrophobic setting. The band members plus one, Poots’ character Amber, are trapped in a club (roadhouse) in the dressing room, aka green room as Darcy (Stewart) and his Aryan lackeys work out how to kill them all.

The band consists of three young men and a female guitarist. Amber works with the boys Primarily, the film is all about survival. Everyone does a great job in their respective roles. But Poots and Yelchin almost effortlessly nail their performances from word one.

Poots boasts a sort of “bowl” band cut and pigtails that makes her look like a demented Pippi Longstockings. Yelchin appears to be almost emaciated. At one point, early in the film, Pat (Yelchin) takes Sam (Alia Shawkat) on the back of a folding bicycle. He looks so rail thin that one wonders how he pedals the thing with her on the back. 

Appearance Counts

All  the band look thin and somewhat wasted, as behooves a young musical group struggling to find gigs, food and petrol. Wisely, the film spends little time on white supremacy themes. It opts instead to have Darcy remind his club members to remember. “It’s a movement, not a party,” He says. This is the only reference to their leanings.

There are pit bulls. The usual “pet dressing” of these members of society.They are used against the young band members throughout the film. Saulnier has already proven that he can do comedy horror on a budget. Murder Party , his debut film, and the quirky, bloody, crime thriller; Blue Ruin, both show what he can do with a good horror/thriller.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the entire film is Darcy’s unflappable calm. He plots the demise of so many people with no qualms at all. He even instructs, via a seemingly throwaway remark, how to kill the people responsible for the whole “cluster-f***” in the first place.

The soldiers who willingly go after the targets are unsettling. But they are really quite two dimensional. Thus they serve more as bogeymen cohorts. They are not the real deal, like Stewart’s character.

It all works

Green Room looks top notch with its grimy sets and gritty decor. Black walls with graffiti scrawled everywhere and a dressing room that looks too disgusting to walk through. These all add to the grungy feel of the bar where the band play.

Once again, the late Yelchin proved just how versatile an actor he really was by playing a more unconventional lead character. Saulnier even allows his lead to be somewhat horrifically injured. This is a move that causes the audience to wonder if the actor’s character will make it past the first reel.

The band comes across as a real group of musicians who are working hard to make it happen. Kudos to all the actors for finding the truth of characters that could have been flat two dimensional people without a perfect marriage of script and actor.

The Verdict

Green Room is a solid 4 star film. It entertains and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat as characters are hunted down through the film. The movie can be seen on Cinemax and if you have not already done so, head on over to watch this one.

The Trailer