The main takeaway of the film Green Room is simple: There are few situations more hellish than being trapped for 16 hours in a music venue by a gang of murderous neo-Nazis in the Oregon backwoods.
The story follows the members of the hardcore band The Ain’t Rights—Pat, Tiger, Reece, and Sam, whose lean names befit their means. Low on gas, money, and energy, the band reluctantly agrees to one final gig, the catch being it’s at a white-supremacist club just outside of Portland.
The musicians aren’t thrilled, but at least Pat (Anton Yelchin) recognizes what may be the only upside to their situation: How often does a band get the chance to cover the Dead Kennedys song “Nazi Punks **** Off” in front of a crowd of actual Nazi punks?
From great film critic Dan Scully of ‘Cinema 76’:
What follows is a siege movie that is typical in function but unique in execution. It would be within reason to expect an over the top pulp film that values style over substance, yet Green Room differs from its forbears in that the entire thing feels real, top to bottom.
Yes, shotguns blast and throats are ripped, but it’s never in the exploitative sense of a grindhouse era film, and while there are plenty of practical grue effects on display (all of which elicit groans and cheers depending on which characters are on the receiving end), none threaten to derail the legitimacy of the plot.
Be it the setting, the characters, the music, the dialogue, or the action, every piece of Green Room is alive and on fire. Genre filmmaking is about as close as film can get to the managed madness of the mosh pit, and Green Room left me feeling the same way: sweaty, bruised, and proud to have made it out in one piece. Green Room absolutely rules.
Source Credit: theatlantic.com
Source Credit: cinema76.com
