GREEN ROOM at ADIFF. 2015. WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JEREMY SAULNIER. STARRING PATRICK STEWART, IMOGEN POOTS, ALIA SHAWKAT, ANTON YELCHIN, JOE COLE, CALLUM TURNER AND ERIC EDELSTEIN. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This film is hard to categorise. It's a sickeningly violent movie with no supernatural element to it whatsoever, but the horror in it builds steadily and relentlessly throughout nonetheless. Let's call it a sort of horror-crime thriller and move on, haha.
I watched the film in my official capacity as hot-shot young movie reviewer (!) at this year's ADIFF, otherwise known as the AUDI DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2016. Last year and in previous years, it was sponsored by Jameson and was therefore known as the JAMESON DUBLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, or JDIFF. From JDIFF to ADIFF, geddit? I'm sure you can see how that works, you brainy people, you...!
Anyway, the film was screened in Cineworld in the heart of Dublin's inner city. Cineworld, as the name suggests, is like a flippin' separate Universe in itself. The movie standees and posters for a bazillion different films all bombarded me with their in-your-face brightness and sophistication as I made my way to the screening room, capably ushered every step of the way by about a million twenty-somethings wearing lanyards and ADIFF T-shirts. There was definitely no shortage of officials to boss the public around this year. Good job the public likes being bossed around, right...?
The film is set in the present day and the central characters are an American modern punk rock band called the AIN'T RIGHTS. It's the kind of music I don't really care for myself. It's all a big loud racket with nasty swear words and threats in it and it's not really me. And no, I most certainly am not ancient, haha. I just like a nice bit of JOURNEY or MEN AT WORK. Nice unthreatening music, you know? Music that won't hurt anyone or get anyone killed.
I'm afraid I didn't much like the band members, either. For the first few scenes, when they're in the van or just getting to the venue, their annoying and incoherent too-cool-for-school mumblings made me think I'd gone temporarily deaf. I couldn't make out a bloody word they were saying. Bloody mumbly young 'uns. Why, in my day, young folks opened their mouths properly to speak...!
When all the shit starts going down and stuff and everyone on-screen is screeching at everyone else and saying things like 'BACK THE FUCK OFF, ASSHOLE...!,' the dialogue becomes less important and it's all about the action. So what exactly is going on, I hear you ask? That's a good question.
The band are unlucky enough to witness a fatal stabbing in an out-of-the-way music venue they've been booked to play at. The crappy gig, attended by hardcore neo-Nazi skinheads, is policed by even more hardcore neo-Nazi skinheads.
Naturally, the organisers of the venue are not keen for the AIN'T RIGHTS to start running around the deeply wooded countryside shooting their mouths off about the murdered girl. It's not good for business, see?
A terrifying stand-off sees the young greenhorn (well, by comparison to the neo-Nazis!) musicians trapped in a room with the corpse while all around them the tough guys are closing in with guns and attack dogs and God-knows-what-else.
The tough guys are so tough it's petrifying. I've seen tough guys in films before (Reservoir Dogs-tough, that is!) but these guys are, like, crazy-tough. Maybe it's the Nazi thing. I personally found them really, really scary. They're the kind of guys you don't want to cross under any circumstances.
Patrick Stewart does an excellent job as Darcy, the leader of the white supremacists. He looks pretty good for seventy-five (seventy-bloody-five!) in a neatly-trimmed grey beard and spectacles. Patrick Stewart, as if any of you needed telling, is famous for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in TV series STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.
I always liked the guy with the black beard and piercing eyes from that show. I think he's called Jonathan Frakes. Remember all the fun people had in the 'Nineties saying Beverly Crusher and Gates McFadden...? Of course you do.
Anyway, my personal favourite role of Patrick Stewart's is that of the licentious (that means
horny!) CIA Director Avery Bullock in hit animated comedy series AMERICAN DAD. I love the way he's always trying to get some from Stan Smith's slutty tree-hugging daughter Hayley. Which, as she's slutty, shouldn't present him with any difficulties, one would assume.
I think the character of Darcy is the most interesting one in GREEN ROOM. He's so cold and efficient when he's giving orders that will result in the taking away of life and it probably means as little to him as the ordering of fries with his Big Mac. It makes him the most frightening person of all here and Patrick Stewart plays the role in a way that's almost deadpan, the better to accentuate the evil.
Terrible things happen in the film to people on both sides of that locked 'Green Room' door. The violence is pretty shocking. I'm sure that some hardened fans of film violence will say that it's not but trust me, it is. I was sad for anyone who got mauled, slaughtered or otherwise mutilated but it was a general kind of sadness that I'd reserve for anyone who got hurt. I had no strong feelings of support for the punk band because I'm sorry to say that I didn't like a single last one of 'em. Nope, nor that bleached-blonde trollop Amber, neither. Aren't I awful...!
I did like the paintball story, the spooky, densely-wooded scenery and the attack dog who ignored the prey to lie down faithfully beside his dead master. Oh, and I liked Big Justin because a guy that size would always be my type, heh-heh-heh.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can contact her at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
excellent review, I enjoyed this at Glasgow film festival, love the a4 punk gig posters. I used to promote punk/hc bands in Glasgow and manchester, created the gig posters, zine and been to many dives like the green room.
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