Review of Green Room (2016) by Joshua S — 26 May 2016

A brutal and claustrophobic thriller and sometimes outright horror exercise, Green Room comes from director Jeremy Saulnier, known best for indie darling Blue Ruin. Green Room kicks into overdrive when an impoverished punk band led by Anton Yelchin takes a gig at a Neo-Nazi bar in the backwoods of Oregon.

When the band becomes witness to a murder, the skinheads led by an underplayed Patrick Fucking Stewart decide to clean up and eliminate the punk band quietly. So yes, a Neo-Nazi Jean-Luc Picard tries to murder a punk rock Chekov.

Aside from the complete freak show that is the scenario that I just described, Green Room uses the plot of what should be a trashy grindhouse flick, and instead becomes a slow burn thriller. What struck me as remarkable was how the majority of characters on both sides were incredibly and realistically stupid, as they blunder and slowly kill each other off in increasingly uncomfortable ways.

Much of the audience may not find anyone to "root for" and that's fine - you're not supposed to. Yelchin anchors the story, while Stewart gives a quiet take on a backwoods racist version on Walter White.

Imogen Poots steals the show and seems the most comfortable in this strange film, which says as much about her character as it does her talent as an actress. This is likely to become a cult classic in the years to come, one that I can easily recommend to my more twisted and depraved friends.