Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

5/17/2016

Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

♥♥♥♥

The cool, tunnel-like poster for Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room

Green Room is the 3rd feature from writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin (2013)), who debuted with the low-budgeted horror-comedy Murder Party (2007).

A passionate but unsuccessful punk band of youths get an offer to finish their ailed tour with a concert that will turn in a wad of cash. Their acceptance is soon regretted when they witness something they shouldn't at the neo-Nazi venue.

Anton Yelchin (Broken Horses (2015)) has grown quite a bit, - from the cute kid of Fierce People (2005)) to the hard-edged, balding guy that meets us in Green Room, in which he acts well yet again. Patrick Stewart (The Game of Their Lives (2005)) is convincing as the inhumane heavy of the pic, though his garbled intonation made me wish I'd had subtitles.
Green Room sets up an interesting premise and turns fast into a survival horror with some effective gross-out moments and awesome effects work. SPOILER The arm chopping scene early on is probably its best.

Real terror didn't creep up on me via the film, simply because the punk band's situation seemed too far removed from any situation I might ever find myself in. What could have been another stupid-youths-caught-in-the-woods-to-die-screaming-one-by-one is lifted here due to the fact that the kids aren't stupid at all, and that the truly rotten predicament seems realistic enough.
SPOILER The film features some neat details like the fire extinguisher turning bad guys into something resembling zombies, and the band, - in true punk kid fashion, - fixing even mutilated limbs with duct tape.
Green Room, while a good ride for fans of the brutal, isn't a perfect film, though. It upholds a solemnity that is a little much, and some of the lines that best represent this don't really stick. It injects a self-ironic touch, but only in the last shot of the film. Some of the characterizations that might have been deepened seem to have been replaced with much talk of cartridges, bullets and guns, which at some point become something less than interesting. SPOILER Also, the Werm character, intensely portrayed by Brent Werzner (Blue Ruin), who plays an eerie, intense function in the first part of the film, and whom we later feel curious about, has nothing more to do in the film.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here's a short trailer for the film

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Green Room was released May 17 (Cannes) and runs 95 minutes. The film was shot from October 2014 in Oregon. It was shown in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes and later shown at the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opened wide #16, in 777 theaters, to a 0.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America where it has so far grossed 2.7 mil. $ (90 % of the total gross). It has been shown at a wealth of film festivals, and the gross reported above must rise in time to come. Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets reported yet are France with 0.2 mil. $ (6.7 %) and United Arab Emirates with 66k $ (2.2 %). Green Room is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.7 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Green Room?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

5/17/2016

Green Room (2015) or, I Was a Punk Band Nazi Killer!

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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