Tense, Taught and Visceral Siege Film

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2016)

It is always my pleasure to bring attention to a movie that might have flown under the radar. With Summer Blockbuster season rapidly approaching, you would do well to check out Jeremy Saulnier's gritty, taught and tense punk rock siege film GREEN ROOM.
If the term "punk rock siege film" turns you off (I know it did me), let me tell you that the main bad guy in this film is portrayed by Sir Patrick Stewart.
Yes - that got my attention, too.
GREEN ROOM tells the story of a down on it's luck Punk Rock band, led by Pat (Anton Yelchin - Chekov in the Star Trek reboot). They take one last gig at an out of the way bar in the Pacific Northwest - a hangout for neo-Nazis. When Pat accidentally witnesses a murder, they are trapped in (and then barricaded in) the GREEN ROOM while the head of the group, Darcy (Patrick Stewart) can pin the murder on them.
This siege becomes long and drawn out as Darcy and Pat attempt to work out a truce. These scenes are tense and when the violence begins - as it most surely must in these types of movies - it is visceral, intense and hardcore.
Yelchin and Imogen Poots (as a friend of the newly deceased) make decent leads to be trapped in the Green Room with (along with the other members of the band), but is is Stewart's cool, calm, collected and MENACING leader that steals this movie. Stewart calls this film his "quietest" role ever and he would be right. But it is in this quietness that the real tension and malevolance resides. Darcy seems calm on the exterior but you can see the wheels turning as he tries to make the best possible outcome - for himself and his crew.
Director and Writer Salnier (Blue Ruin) does a nice job of wratcheting up the tension using sparce dialogue, winding things up just enough to make the inevtiable explosion jarring and meaningful.
Make no mistake, this movie is not for the squeamish, there is plenty of blood and guts on the screen before this one is over, but the journey along the way is quite good and one that I would recommend you check out.
7 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (of Marquis)