Green Room Review So A Punk Band & Nazis Walk Into A Bar

Stop me if you've heard this one, but a punk rock band, Neo-Nazis and Captain Picard step into a bar in the next film from Jeremy Saulnier. Director Jeremy Saulnier has had a place in our hearts with violence and gore since his 2007 gem, Murder Party. That was followed by a hobo sort of Rambo with Blue Ruin, which could have ended his career as he bet his own house on it. I'm glad his back with some known actors for his third film Green Room. Green Room does in fact have white supremacists, a punk rock band and Patrick Stewart pulling off a thriller with some great twists that make it fresh and still deliciously gory.

As of writing this, we're sad to put down that it's only playing at one location in LA.

Green Room
Playing at ArcLight Hollywood Now

Don't fret it should have wider release April 29, it'll only be against Civil War.

Green Room starts out with a broke punk band that's so cheap and so crappy they have to siphon gas to make it to their next gig and their next gig sucks. A new gig opens up when the punk enthusiast who got them out  basically pay at a fast-food restaurant feels bad and tries to make amends. The new gig ends up being a white supremacist bar. It doesn't go easy from the start, then the band discovers some foul play and the owners don't want word getting out. Dead bodies break business deals.

From that point on the film gets darker as it's the band versus the supremacists who own the place.  Not the whole club, just the owner and his henchman. They band get one more member by  another witness, a white supremacist women who was just a friend of the now deceased. They're stuck in the green room and it doesn't look like they'll be getting out alive.

This is a true well-written script with characters to get behind, on their attempts to achieve freedom and of course antagonists to just love to hate. You'll love to hate the small role Patrick Stewart has as the owner of the bar, Darcy Banker. With him, we see that the hatred the bar holds is more about business then any real hate philosophy. He's joined by a crew of henchmen, each with a bit of their own shtick, like the dog guy or fattie, who you all want to see get killed.

They're made part of a group called the red strings, that locks them in as a bad guy group to identify and hate without just sticking swastikas on them. When you first hear them get talked about by Darcy, you're already worried by what the "loyal" hardcore inner circle will do.

It's a real thriller of an escape film and violence is on high. When someone goes out, they don't fall on the floor and go, "Ehhh!" you see blood rush out. What you may hope is a predictable movie trope you're watching gets undone you realize how lazy other films are when it comes to writing. In any case, not a lot of winners in this one.

If you want a truly grim thriller to get taken in with then catch this solid piece of work from Saulnier.