Archer - Season 1
TV Season
Suave, sophisticated spy Archer may have the coolest gadgets, but he still has issues when it comes...
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 4
TV Season Watch
Sarah Michelle Gellar takes on the role of Buffy Summers in this TV version of "Buffy the Vampire...
Svetik: A Family Portrait of Sviatoslav Richter
Anthony Phillips, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Walter Moskalew
Book
For well over half a century, since the Soviet regime first allowed Sviatoslav Richter to travel to...
Breaking Bad - Season 1
TV Season Watch
Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who lives in New...
Breaking Bad
TV Show Watch
Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who lives in New...
Before the Heat Death by CP Unit
Album Watch
With only 26 years of age, alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos is the face of the new generation of...
The British Constitution
Book
In the latter part of the nineteenth century Walter Bagehot wrote a classic account of the British...
The Last Guru: The Authorised Biography of Robert Cohan
Book
Robert Cohan is part of the pantheon of American contemporary choreographers which includes Alvin...
Bank Valuation and Value Based Management: Deposit and Loan Pricing, Performance Evaluation, and Risk
Book
The definitive guide to complying with the brand-newBasel III requirements and creating sustainable...
Gareth von Kallenbach (971 KP) rated Green Room (2015) in Movies
Aug 6, 2019
It’s to the point now where if the A24 logo is at the front of a flick, chances are I’m handing over my hard-earned cash. Enemy, Locke, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, Slow West – they’ve been distributing some of my favorite films from the last few years and are fast becoming a powerhouse for indie movies, not unlike Focus Features a little more than a decade ago. Unfortunately, this means I set my expectations a little too high on my way into Green Room, which was not hard to do when you combine A24’s track record with the emerging talent of writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. Blue Ruin, his second feature, was the surprise indie hit of 2013. Expertly crafted and deliberately paced, it harkened back to 70’s-style bleak and gritty filmmaking. Green Room also features some of the DNA that made Blue Ruin great, those quite moments of high-tension leading into heart-stopping explosions of extreme violence are present and accounted for, but a thinner plot and characters who are severely underdeveloped show that this story, to its detriment, was in much more of a rush to get where it was going than its predecessor was.
Green Room’s major selling point is of course, Patrick Stewart. Adding one part Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach’s character from American History X) to one part Walter White/Heisenberg, his performance will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest departures of our time. Having said that, and believe me when I say I’m loathe to fly in the face of what an exceptional casting choice this was, he is frustratingly underutilized. It does speak to what an unrivaled talent he is when he can build most of his menace from the other side of a locked door, but regardless of how solid the performance is, his presence is merely a set-piece. A role with this little screen time rivals Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (they both had what probably amounted to about 15 minutes of screen time, or less), but I’m certain Stewart’s won’t leave as lasting an impression. To be blunt, if you’re queuing up just for him, you may come away disappointed.
The flip side to this comes about through Imogen Poots as Amber, friend to the murder victim and unfortunate enough to get trapped backstage with the band. Much of the best dialogue, along with some incredible moments of jaw-dropping spontaneity, comes her way and it’s her deadpan delivery that steals the show. Though we are supposed to root for the band, it was her cynical “inside man” that drew me further into their nightmare situation and kept me hoping that she might be the one to survive and give the skinheads the brutal justice they deserved.
For now, I’m sticking to my guns and giving Green Room just half marks, but I look forward to a second viewing at home in a few months, where I’m certain my opinion of it will improve, due to my expectations being more aligned and the foreknowledge that this is simple and standard survival horror fare…that just happens to feature Picard as a neo-Nazi.