TITLE: Green Room
LIONSGATE
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Saulnier
WRITER: Jeremy Saulnier
CAST: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Joe Cole, Macon Blair, Mark Webber
RUNNING TIME: 95 min
RATED: R (Violence, Gore, Language)
SPECIAL FEATURES: Making of Featurette; Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier
AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY: July 12

Underground punk band The Ain’t Rights are considering calling it quits. The band consists of Pat (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek reboot), Tiger (Callum Turner, Victor Frankenstein), Reese (Joe Cole, Peaky Blinders) and Sam (Alia Shawkat, Arrested Development). They are barely scraping by and after playing at a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant for dinner and 6 bucks each, they decide to pack up their van and go home. They then get news of a paying gig in the middle of the Oregon wilderness at a skinhead bar. It’s one last gig, what could happen?  After playing their set, they walk back to the green room and witness a murder. The bar’s owner Darcy (Sir Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: The Next Generation) is then called to help clean up the mess. He locks the band inside the room until he can gather his troops to “clean up” the band. Without their cell phones or any way to signal for help, the band and fellow crafty captive Amber (Imogen Poots, 28 Weeks Later) must find a way out of the green room and away from the skinhead mob that is lying in wait outside.

The Good:  The practical effects are incredible. There’s a character that gets his arm nearly hacked off and it looks real. The characters are well thought out and performed, the soundtrack is great, and the suspense is gut wrenching. Sir Patrick Stewart is amazing as a villain and pulls it off spectacularly.  It’s unfortunate that this is one of Anton Yelchin’s final films, but his performance is unyielding.

The Bad:  The scene where they duct tape the mutilated arm was creative, but there was no gushing blood that would’ve been evident with such a wound. There was a particular scene where the character was crawling around on their hands and knees when the arm would have been in no condition to bear weight. A slight oversight maybe, but that sticks out.

The special features include a making of featurette and commentary with writer/director Jeremy Saulnier. While the features are pretty standard, I think the film itself is reason enough to purchase the Blu-ray.

STORY: B
TECHNICAL: A
TOTAL RATING: A-
REVIEWED BY: JM Willis