[109.5 points / 11 votes]
“I enjoy comedies, dramas, love stories, musicals, documentaries, etc… as much as anyone else, but there are few things I treasure more than a perfect thriller. Green Room is a perfect thriller. A model of lean, economical, and suspenseful filmmaking, the film involves a down-on-their-luck touring punk rock band who find themselves in a fight-to-the-death battle with a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads after accidentally witnessing a murder following a gig at a remote, secluded punk rock club. That’s the whole story, and it’s more than enough to fill 90 brisk, galvanizing minutes.
“Evoking the spirit of classic ‘siege’ films like John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13 (also a perfect thriller), Green Room sets up a claustrophobic, powder keg situation, populates it with compelling and complex characters, and lets the sparks (and bullets, and machetes, and box cutters) fly while the audience is left to clutch their armrests with anxiety. Making the tension even more gripping is the unexpected realism. Unlike most thriller/horror films, there are truly no moments when the audience is forced to think ‘why would he/she do that?’ or ‘that would never happen.’ Within the context of the storyline, the characters’ actions proceed with a brutal, desperate realism that feels practically instinctual.
“It’s filled with excellent performances, especially by Anton Yelchin (R.I.P.), Imogen Poots, Macon Blair, and Alia Shawkat, but the film’s casting coup de grâce is unquestionably a chilling Patrick Stewart as Darcy, the leader of the skinhead gang. The much-beloved Stewart clearly relishes playing such a baddie, and much of the film’s subtle, dark humor comes from his unexpected pragmatism. He may be a vicious, brutal, drug-dealing Neo-Nazi gang leader, but he won’t abide any fire hazards.” ~ Jason Alley
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