[7]

After witnessing a murder, a punk band gets trapped by skinheads at a rural dive bar in this survival/revenge tale from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin). Anton Yelchin (from the Star Trek and Fright Night remakes) and Imogen Poots play two of the band members, and Patrick Stewart lends gravitas as the white supremacist club owner. Stewart is icy-cool and effective here, a much more subdued performance than I’ve ever seen him give before. Green Room makes the most of its claustrophobic scenario, opening up a bit in the third act both geographically and viscerally. Saulnier’s directorial approach is more classical than the whiz-bang bullshittery demonstrated by most other up-and-coming directors today — I really fucking appreciate that. I particularly like how he encourages the audience to savor a moment in time by framing close-ups of the action in slow-motion and dropping out all sound save for the score, forcing us to find beauty in the calm before the storm.