Green Room (2016) Review

"Let him bleed."

-Darcy Banker

While on tour, punk rock band, the Ain't Rights, have a gig canceled on them at the last minutes.  The promoter sets them up with a replacement gig at a rural bar in the middle of the woods.  They are warned that there will be some neo-Nazi skinheads in attendance, but the band is unconcerned as there are always skinheads at punk rock shows.  After the show, the band accidentally walks in on a murder being committed by one of the skinheads and they quickly find themselves trapped in their dressing room.  With murderous neo-Nazis outside, led by Darcy Banker (Patrick Stewart), the band has to find a way out of the bar if they want to survive.

What Works:

Green Room is an utterly thrilling film.  It has a fairly simple premise, but the filmmakers run with it and pump the tension up to 100.  I love movies that are mostly set in one location.  It forces the filmmakers to have interesting conflicts between the characters on a smaller-scale and that is absolutely the case here.  I was on the edge of my seat as I watched everything play out and the film flew by.  The pacing is excellent and the story is engaging.

Green Room is a very tactical film, which scores major points with me.  We see each side forming strategies to outsmart the others.  I love this kind of stuff.  We see lots of negotiations between the band and the neo-Nazis and plenty of scheming and plotting.  These are smartly written characters and, for the most part, they do what the audience would do in the same situation.

There isn't a massive amount of gore in the film, but when it happens, it's hardcore.  Early on in the film, one of the band members get sliced up with a machete.  It happens off-screen, but when we see the results of the attack, it's effective.  The gore is tough to look at and the sequence does a great job of setting up how serious the situation is.  We also get a brutal kill with a box cutter.  It caught me off guard and had some gnarly effects.

One thing I really appreciate is that the band members eventually realize that can't beat the neo-Nazis using standard tactics.  The rockers are too far outmatched.  So they have to rely on unpredictable and bizarre methods to survive.  It makes a lot of sense and it's this kind of intelligent thinking that makes me really like these characters.

Finally, the acting is top notch.  Patrick Stewart is fantastic, as always, as the leader of the neo-Nazis.  He's a terrifying villain and not someone I would ever want to run into in a dark alley...or anywhere really.  The late Anton Yelchin is also fantastic as one of the band members.  He's a great protagonist, is really relatable, and easy to root for.

What Sucks:

There are a couple of moments throughout the film where I wish the characters had made smarter decisions.  Most of them are minor, but there is one early on in the film that makes no sense to me.  Once the band arrives, they see white power symbols, swastikas, and a confederate flag in their dressing room.  They were warned before hand that there will be skinheads in the crowd.  It is established that they are out of gas money, so they have to play the show, otherwise they won't be able to get home.   Fine, but the first song they play is called "F*ck Nazi Punks".  Now, I hate Nazis as much as Indiana Jones, but singing this song after seeing the dressing room and knowing the type of people in the audience just seems like a really bad idea.  Some of the neo-Nazis in the audience even start throwing bottles at the band.  While the song doesn't end up having any bearing on the plot, I still think this was an extremely bad decision and seems like a great way to get yourself beat up or worse.  Great song title though.

Verdict:

Questionable decisions aside, Green Room is an intense film with mostly intelligent characters, excellent strategies, effective gore, and fantastic acting.  It's a thrill-ride from beginning to end and has absolutely got it going on.

 9/10: Great