Green Room (2016) - Movie Review

A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar. (IMDB)

Rating: R

Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes

Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Horror

Released: May 13, 2016

Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier

Written by: Jeremy Saulnier

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Patrick Stewart

You would think that since the villains of this movie are neo-Nazis, it would be easy to cheer on whoever was going up against them. However, it is hard to find an ounce of empathy for the pretentious and whiny punk band. It seems that Jeremy Saulnier was under the impression that as long as the bad guys were bad enough, he would not have to worry about developing the protagonists. 

So I was left not liking the neo-Nazi gang and not giving a crap about what happened to the little punk band. That left me very bored and disappointed. More time to actually get to know the band would have helped with this problem. The highlight of the film is when the band opens their set (at a place known as a hangout for neo-Nazis) with a song that has them yelling "fuck Nazi scum". The rest is a borefest with occasional moments of gore that came off as trying too hard to be shocking.

Rating: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 3/10