Manuel de Layet [Celluloid 05.19.15] horror thriller



Jeremy Saulnier's sophomore effort The Green Room, pits punk-rockers white trash against white-power paramilitary rednecks.


It's one of those "wasp landing on a porcupine" conundrums. You can't possibly care for the protagonists unless you're 12 and in rebel phase, and the opposition deserves whatever happens to them.

Nevertheless, the pace at which every situation deteriorates into a bigger clusterfuck, is good enough for the whole to retain attention and be effective. Besides that there's zilch, the whole pitch being of the "wrong place wrong time" persuasion.


I might be picky but Sir Patrick Steward as a bald, goateed, learned drug manufacturer feels derivative to the point of distraction. Not that he doesn't do a tremendous job of it - there's this pop culture landmark shadowing everything. Also he's introduced such in such a "filmmaking 101" way to make his first appearance boring. They managed to avoid any catchphrase of fame at least.


As an exercise of style it delivers everything you could be expecting and I really do have to praise that, in an era of gore for the sake of gore or projects where the only point is to cater to Mortal Kombat fans' tastes, here all the blood, mutilation and killing is actually justified, goes with the flow of the story itself and heightens both tension and whatever character development there is.


It's really a sad consideration on the state of film making when you ponder about it.


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