Green Street - Movie Review

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2020)

I read the synopsis for Green Street and it wasn't immediately something that interested me, but I decided to check it out for the talent involved. Elijah Wood is great in the film, but I find it difficult seeing him as anything else other than Frodo Baggins. I am also a massive Charlie Hunnam fan ever since Sons of Anarchy, and he was my favourite part of Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen.
The characters in Green Street were all interesting, but my favourite was definitely Wood's character, Matt Buckner. He has the most defined arc in the film, transforming from an innocent University student to a hardcore gang member. The dialogue between Matt and Humman's character, Pete Dunham, was engaging.
Unfortunately, the overall story isn't quite as strong as I would have liked it to be. This doesn't necessarily surprise me because it isn't the type of story I would usually gravitate towards, but I can see why some people would like it a lot more than I did. Thankfully, the characters were developed just enough that I didn't completely check out from the film.
I really liked the colour pallet, because many of the shots have a green tint to them. This really added to the grittiness, and made me have a more immersive experience.
Another negative towards the film is the direction. It's extremely poor, and this is especially noticeable in some of the action scenes and hand-to-hand combat. I couldn't see what was happening most of the time, and this was largely down to the abundance of shaky-cam.
Overall, Green Street isn't a great film and I wouldn't even quite call it a good film. However, the character interactions and the development of Matt meant that it didn't end up being a complete waste of my movie-watching time.
SCORE: 63%