[...] for all the wicked plot turns and marvelously gratuitous carnage, the film’s greatest asset may be its realism.
“Green Room” is simultaneously well-thought-out and extremely unpredictable — a low-budget movie where the filmmaker is in complete command of the chaos.
Saulnier directed “Blue Ruin,” an even less tidy film about a revenge plot and its twisted fallout.
After playing a lucrative gig at a skinhead joint in deep woods Oregon, a band member (Anton Yelchin) witnesses a violent crime and makes the moral decision.
The skinheads are evil, but they are portrayed as skilled and savvy, and it’s clear from the beginning that even in the best-case scenario, most of our heroes will not make it out alive.
Whether it was the sound mixing, editing issues or just a loud audience (my packed screening was appropriately well-boozed at the excellent new Alamo Drafthouse in San Francisco), the dialogue was hard to hear.
All of the punk-side actors are solid, especially Yelchin as a thoughtful bassist and Alia Shawkat as the band’s lone female member.
An early scene where the band meets its first physical challenge, a beefy gun-toting skinhead caught in the room with them, draws sympathy for everyone involved.
Fans of good struggling bands will appreciate the details, from the busted van to the strong bonds forged, even as the group deals with repeated failure.
The cinematography and direction are particularly compelling; the complicated sequences on the tight sets must have forced camera operators to play cinematic Twister in impossibly small corners.
Unless you’re going out with a serial killer, a Slayer fan or a senior editor of Fangoria magazine, “The Jungle Book” is probably the better first-date movie.
