GREEN ROOM

Written/directed by Jeremy Saulnier

There was a big run on throwbacks to the grindhouse/exploitation films of the '70s in recent years, but most were just self-aware imitations  that rarely did anything new with the material. Now comes Green Room that not only pays homage to that genre, but updates it for 2016 and allows it to play out in a very realistic world.

You read about horrible shit happening in this country every day, but those victims and criminals are just words on paper. We feel bad for the victim and hate the criminals (as we usually should) but pay little to thought to how these terrible stories unfolded and why people did what they did. That's exactly what Green Room is-- the story of how it all went down. And it's the whole story-- every how, what, why and why not you ever came up with after reading some disgusting news story and even tells you to shut the fuck up before you start spouting out your usual victim-blaming cliches such as...

They deserved what they got.
If I was there, I would have done this...
Thanks, Obama.

Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier gets this shit right. Green Room is the tense, bloody-as-fuck, angry punk rock, voyeuristic thriller everyone wanted, but was too afraid to ask for. It's not only a great use of a single location and a micro-budget, it's a perfect example of clever, original, out-of-the-box filmmaking that hopefully pressures Hollywood reconsider their stance on only putting up the big bucks for reboots, remakes and sequels. I hope to see more Green Rooms in the future and whole hell of a lot less Batman v. Superman v. Godzilla v. Ghostbusters v. Harry Potter v. Jesus v. Kung Fu Panda v. Dora the Explorer.... actually, check that. I would love that to see that movie. And my money's on Dora.

--Dan Sinclair

GRADE: A