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I mostly enjoyed the unflinching, ice cold violence of Green Room - but I am struck by what feels Jeremy Saulnier's lack of filmmaking joy coming through to the screen. Yes, I realize that what we're seeing is horrifying, but contrasted with this year's 10 Cloverfield Lane, Green Room plays things entirely straight, never reveling in its tension or gore despite providing a whole lot of both. I don't know if this is the film trying to have it both ways or not, because it has no interest in preaching to us the way that something like Funny Games did - but I guess I just thought I was going to have more fun?

Green Room was a good quick film which to me felt very much to be a showcase for Imogen Poots who I had no idea it was until I happened to see her name days later in something written about the movie.

mfunk9786 wrote:Yes, I realize that what we're seeing is horrifying, but contrasted with this year's 10 Cloverfield Lane, Green Room plays things entirely straight, never reveling in its tension or gore despite providing a whole lot of both. I don't know if this is the film trying to have it both ways or not, because it has no interest in preaching to us the way that something like Funny Games did - but I guess I just thought I was going to have more fun?

What do you mean by straight? Humor?

It's a movie about white supremacist assholes, how much fun were you expecting to have?

I never expected for the subject matter to be treated as a joke, per se, but for the enjoyment of the filmmaker to come through more in the more tense moments of the film. It's something that almost embarrasses me to try to explain, because it's so difficult to put my finger on in a way that I can verbally point to.

Blue Ruin worked much better for me than this film. I'll say this though: Green Room is well-paced and I liked some of the performances but I never felt for the characters like I did with Macon Blair's character in the previous film. The Little White Lies review sums up my own feelings pretty well although my own score would have been more like Anticipation 5, Enjoyment 3 and In Retrospect 3.

Maybe this is a short-term memory problem, or maybe this is an age problem, or maybe there's no problem at all, but in my life no movie has ever come close to scaring me as much as Green Room scared me. Like, in a "still shaking in the theater lobby 20 minutes after it ended" way. I don't know if that alone makes it a great movie, but, jeez, there's something to be said for its ability to provoke that kind of a response--it's cinema as an event, and was brutally effective for me.

A good, brief, solid thriller, with nothing to rally against even if it's not particularly exceptional in any regards. Worth seeing, but not a lot to really discuss with this movie, is there? All of the characters are ciphers and we know who's going to make it to the end because we've seen the Blu-ray cover (this isn't necessarily a spoiler, more just common sense going in). I did like the last line, which seemed to at least lampshade the complete unknowability of our protagonists, and I also liked how Poots and Yelchin's characters don't seem to really like each other but are stuck in the forward momentum of the plot and have to play the hand they've been dealt, including making nice with each other.

An incredibly tense thriller that unfortunately fell apart somewhat towards the end.

Spoiler

Throughout the film as the tension ramps up, it becomes increasingly hard to believe that their is any way out of this for our protagonists. They're trapped in the building with little in the way of weapons, surrounded by vicious dogs and a gang of violent assholes who do have weapons. And yet, inexplicably, the film takes a Bond villain turn when Darcy, the dog handler and one of the gang just take off without finishing the job, but instead of a ever nearing laser beam, they leave a couple of knuckleheads behind to take care of business. I guess they had to go and set up their elaborate crime scene! Though surely, a vehicular bonfire would've done the trick just as well.

I personally felt Patrick Stewart (whom I adore) was criminally miscast. I never found him menacing even on an intellectual level.