Green Room

Movies to See Right Now

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Patrick Stewart and Macon Blair in GREEN ROOM. photo courtesy of Scott Green/© A24.
Patrick Stewart and Macon Blair in GREEN ROOM. Photo: Scott Green/© A24.

My recommended movies in theaters this week:

  • The bloody thriller Green Room is a fresh and satisfying, well, bloody thriller.  Very intense and very violent.  Director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin) proves again that he’s the rising master of the genre movie.
  • If you like dystopian sci-fi, then the satire High-Rise is for you.  Otherwise, not a Must See.
  • Thriller meets thinker in Eye in the Sky, a parable from modern drone warfare starring Helen Mirren and with a wonderful final performance from the late Alan Rickman. This movie has been out since March and has shown remarkable staying power.

The mismatched buddy movie Dough is light, fluffy and empty – just like a Twinkie.

My Stream of the Week is the thought-provoking documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad, which explores how right-wing media impacts the mood and personality of its consumers as well as their political outlook. The Brainwashing of My Dad is available streaming on Amazon Video, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

On May 19, Turner Classic Movies bring us Roger Corman’s time-capsule LSD exploitation film The Trip, which is featured in my Bad Movie Festival (scroll down to No. 9). Peter Fonda buys acid from Dennis Hopper and trips at Bruce Dern’s house – but wanders away to stagger down Sunset Boulevard.

On May 20, TCM airs a time capsule from the 1970s, the crime/revenge drama The Outfit, starring Robert Duvall, Linda Black and Joe Don Baker. The supporting cast is itself an homage to 1950s film noir: Robert Ryan (mob kingpin), Timothy Carey (chief henchman), Jane Greer, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor and Richard Jaeckel. The Outfit is the masterpiece of director John Flynn, whose other work consisted of pedestrian action movies.

Duvall pisses off Timothy Carey in THE OUTFIT
Robert Duvall pisses off Timothy Carey in THE OUTFIT

GREEN ROOM: blood and suspense

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Imogen Poots in GREEN ROOM
Imogen Poots in GREEN ROOM

The bloody thriller Green Room is a fresh and satisfying, well, bloody thriller. A vagabond rock band (Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat and a couple of others) finds themselves playing a gig at a remote white nationalist compound in the woodsy Northwest. Inadvertently, they witness a murder and the chief skinhead (Patrick Stewart!) needs to eliminate all the witnesses. The band members and a local girl (Imogen Poots) are trapped in a room with just one way out, as the skinheads send in waves of machete- and shotgun-wielding thugs and vicious pit bulls. Who will survive and how?

Director Jeremy Saulnier proves again that he’s the rising master of the genre movie.  Saulnier’s writing and directorial debut was 2014’s Blue Ruin, an entirely fresh take on the revenge thriller. An audience favorite on the festival circuit in 2013, Blue Ruin didn’t get a theatrical release, and I would have missed it entirely but for a suggestion from my friend Jose.   In Blue Ruin, Saulnier was responsible for the wholly original lead character and the intense pace of the film, along with the meticulously economical storytelling; the exposition never relies on even one extra word of dialogue.  Blue Ruin is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube and Xbox Video.

In his superb leading performance in Blue Ruin, Macon Blair was believable both as a damaged down-and-outer and as a man-on-a-mission.  In Green Room, Blair plays Gabe, the put-upon middle manager  of Patrick Stewart’s  compound.  Blair is just so interesting an actor.  Here, he brings an unusual humanity  to his role as a henchman.

The actor who drives the story, however, is Imogen Poots.  Her character is very practical – realistic enough to see that the situation is hopeless.  At first, she is numbed by the murder of her friend.  But when she finally decides that she is going to survive – watch out!  Since 2012, Poots has becoming a preferred indie leading lady with Greetings from Tim Buckley, A Late Quartet , The Look of Love, A Country Called Home, Green Room and her most complex role so far in the upcoming Frank & Lola.   Here in Green Room, she’s a force of nature.

Once again, Saulnier delivers a very fresh and original genre movie.  The total effect is very intense and very violent.   If you’re okay with some gory violence, then Green Room is a thrill ride worth taking.