Pulled Me In & Didn't Let Up...Tension Played Out Slowly & Masterfully

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2016)

We all know that sometimes one thing begets another thing. Hopefully most of the time the outcome is positive. Green Room explores what if a chance decision lead to a horrendous result and in the aftermath of trying to do the right thing lead to the unthinkable. Something worse than you could even imagine just minutes before.
With the premise I've outlined, naturally, there would be many ways to present the problem. Green Room uses youth and a free lifestyle as a great story device. A starving punk band who do not even have enough gas to travel without nicking petrol. In many ways this has the feel of something very real likely experienced more than a few punk bands - most of whom haven't been heard from as they tried and failed. That's not to say they met up with the same fate as the band in Green Room however. This is a bit beyond the everyday and it shows the writers were both grounded in a ugly reality and, thus, inspired.
It's a really tight movie after the initial part where the viewer meets the band and becomes aware of how hopeless it is for a fledgling band to make it. It uses unbridled youth and the eternal hope of some kind of serendipitous good fortune pulls off a small miracle, that being the band may pull itself out of poverty and obscurity. Alas, in the case of our story here everything goes about as bad as it possibly can. The fact the viewer hasn't seen another story quite like this helps tremendously. Once Green Room has you in it's tense grip it just keeps up the pressure.
It comes down to a chance encounter and a kind of knee-jerk reaction. From that decision the unbelievable begins to crush the viewer masterfully. It's the time from this to the final scene that Green Room shines. I'm not going to say any one actor, or actress, gave a fantastic performance other than to say the casting served the story. However, it's the story and how it was played out that really kept this viewer rapt and totally in an edge of the seat mode. That's effective storytelling, and, in this case, creative filmmaking. Very good, thus recommended. The sad side note is this may be Anton Yelchin's final on-screen role. If so he did an excellent job that telegraphs this young man would have been destined for a much higher profile in the industry.