There seems to be a color pattern emerging in writer/director Jeremy Saulnier's body of work. Could the other colors of the rainbow be in each of his next films?
Saulnier follows up his magnificent, modern-day "Hatfields & McCoys" thriller Blue Ruin with Green Room, a white-knuckle siege thriller that will leave you gasping for air.
Green Room chronicles the ordeal of a punk rock band who, after witnessing a murder at a gig, are forced to sit tight in the venue's "green room." Seemingly trapped by the people responsible, the group fights to escape despite being hopelessly outmanned and outgunned.
Patrick Stewart plays Darcy, the owner of the venue and leader of the neo-Nazi group based there. He proves a formidable villain even though some of his dialogue could have been better written. It seems like most of the interactions between the bad guys rely on so much jargon that the motivations of Darcy and his disciples are never entirely clear.
Whatever character development may be lacking through dialogue, Saulnier makes up for in atmosphere. 85 percent of this movie is as tense and nerve-shredding as any of the best horror films from the past 10 years. We know these are nasty guys from the way Darcy sends them in to stalk and murder the trapped teens like a (pardon the simile) Cult of Thorn overlord commands Michael Myers. Even though some of these guys are really no more than disposable goons, Saulnier shoots them all like the horror-movie "big bads" that they are. This way, every scene has a sense of gravity and excitement that you normally don't expect for most movies like this.
Of course the tension boils over into Saulnier's trademark violence. Frequently shocking and unexpected, Saulnier's violence will make you either wince or cheer - sometimes all at once, as the most satisfying violent scenes in all of cinema do. The violence of Green Room also appears medically accurate. Wounds appear realistically based on the weapons used. There's a decent amount of blood, but this isn't Tarantino. I've always found this approach to violence to be the most cinematically visceral. I'm more traumatized by Saulnier's realistic approach than Tarantino's near-comical gore-fests or any movie released as part of the "torture porn" craze of the late 2000s. If the message of Green Room is either "violence begets violence" or "don't mess with desperate people," it lands loud and clear.
Performances are quite impressive from a star-studded cast including Stewart, Anton Yelchin (2009's Star Trek), Imogen Poots (2011's Fright Night), Alia Shawkat (TV's Arrested Development), Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), and Macon Blair (Blue Ruin). Yelchin and Poots reunite for the first time since Fright Night, and their chemistry hasn't lost a step.
Green Room should be seen and enjoyed by anyone bored with how mundane most indie dramas really are. That's always been Saulnier's approach. It certainly served as a perfect shot-in-the-arm to end Sundance with. It's as taut as any of the big Hollywood-produced thrillers of the past several years. I can't wait to watch this one over and over.
A
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