GREEN ROOM: Got a Little Fight in You

Earlier this week, a freak accident took the life of twenty-seven year old actor Anton Yelchin. This review was written before the accident, but I have since edited it to put more of a spotlight on Yelchin's incredible contributions. His career was about to explode, and it would have undoubtedly been long and accomplished. Unfortunately, we are relegated to looking back for his greatest artistic achievements, and Green Room is certainly one of them.

Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Writer: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Mark Webber, Macon Blair
95 mins.
2016

Thusfar Jeremy Saulnier's career consists of tense slow burn ruminations on the way that violence begets violence that also have a color in their title. He kicked this off with the 2014 film Blue Ruin. First films rarely conduct themselves with such swagger, but Blue Ruin lives up to the mellifluousness of its title. With Green Room, his sophomore effort, Saulnier makes it clear that he is a talent who will continue to demand attention. I am certain there are those who prefer the melancholy of Blue Ruin, but for my money Saulnier has topped himself here.

The story can be boiled down as follows: a punk band accidentally witnesses something they shouldn't witness at a backwoods venue--a venue that is actually a front for a cabal of neo-nazis led by the incomparable Patrick Stewart as Darcy. As a result, they are locked in the green room as both our heroes and their relentlessly pragmatic and levelheaded antagonists try to figure out how best to handle the situation.

The term "thriller" often gets bandied about without a second glance, but Green Room truly thrills. Or at least thralls. From about half an hour in, the film had its tendrils firmly wound around my gut. Not once does it let go until the credits roll. Blue Ruin is the essentialized version of the sentiment: "What is going to happen next??" I cannot remember experiencing quite this brand of continually ratcheted stakes since Breaking Bad went off the air.

MANIAC: Cover Your Eyes

Director: Franck Khalfoun
Writers: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur
Cast: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder
Runtime: 89 mins.
2012

This movie. . .

Let me first say that Maniac combines my discussion of found footage in my End of Watch blog post with my discussion of slasher films in my Scream blog post.  It is a found footage slasher film, without actually being as simple as either one of those things.

Let me second say that if you are squeamish, or don't appreciate being made to feel profoundly uncomfortable, you probably shouldn't watch this movie.  Note that I said "appreciate" rather than "enjoy."  Either way, there is no enjoyment to be had here.

TIMECRIMES: Cold and Calculated Like A Ticking Clock

Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Writer: Nacho Vigalondo
Cast: Karra Elejalde, Barbara Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo
Runtime: 92 mins.
2007

Timecrimes, or Cronocrimenes, is a Spanish time-travelling film about a rather normal middle-aged fellow who stumbles into a rather abnormal temporal scenario.  This fellow Hector (Karra Elejalde) begins the film by relaxing with his wife in the yard of his new home.  As he is scanning the woods through binoculars for some unspecified reason, he spies a young woman in the woods who is calmly stripping for, again, no apparent reason whatsoever.  Of course our hero investigates this mystery, whereupon he discovers the woman (Barbara Goenaga) lying naked and unconscious.  He approaches her slowly, only to be stabbed in the arm by a bandage-faced individual with a pair of scissors.  This startling development leads him to seek shelter in a strange complex, and make contact with a mysterious scientist (Nacho Vigalondo) who coaxes him into a large machine filled with white, milky fluid, ostensibly as a place to hide from the bandage-faced dude.  Well, it's a time machine.  So ends the first act.

I'm not one for recaps-as-reviews, but it's kind of impossible to talk about this movie without some knowledge of the plot, because that's really all there is to it.  The acting isn't anything special.  The production values aren't anything special.  What themes there are are fairly straightforward, and rooted firmly in the plot.  The real draw of this film is how flawlessly it realizes its time travel scenario, careful to iron out all wrinkles as it speeds along.

SCREAM: When is Deconstruction Not Constructive?

Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Cast: Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Drew Barrymore
Runtime: 111 mins.
1996

For being someone who claims to be a fan of horror, I feel poorly-versed in the history of the medium.  Horror fans, even more than other subcultures, tend to display an encyclopedic knowledge of genre history and conventions.  Maybe this impulse towards comprehensive understanding was in some ways birthed by Wes Craven's Scream.

The film simultaneously parodies horror tropes and enacts them, following characters who are constantly spouting horror film trivia and debating ways their lives are or aren't like movies.  The first scene shows young, blonde, vivacious Casey (Drew Barrymore) having fun with a mysterious caller who asks about her favorite horror movies.  It turns out the caller is a killer, and Casey is slaughtered, just the sort of thing that happens in the films they were discussing!  Later on, a character is watching Halloween and imploring Jamie Lee Curtis Just look behind you! while Scream's masked murderer creeps up behind him--moreover, because of hidden camera shenanigans, a pair of other characters are watching him and shouting at their screen, Look behind you!