Green Room review - the year's best thriller

A punk rock band becomes trapped in an isolated venue by a gang of neo-Nazis.

Green Room is one of the best films of the year and demands to be seen with an audience, so get out and catch it on the big screen now.

Jeremy Saulnier’s follow up to 2013’s practically perfect Blue Ruin is a thriller in the purest sense of the word. I’ve rarely seen a film which plays with the audience so cannily, or experienced a feature that builds tension so powerfully.

Green Room takes its time. This isn’t a horror film with instant boobs and blood gratification but rather that rare effort which understands that it’s the moments and minutes before the action which really draw in the viewer, suspending them and waiting for the strike.

Saulnier showed this pacing in Blue Ruin but it’s taken to masterful levels here as set pieces spool out in mesmerising fashion. And when the violence hits it's all the more devastating, with a focus on detailed practical effects which are guaranteed to make you squirm.

The director makes the leap to bigger budget filmmaking with a cast of familiar faces including Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat and the marvellous Patrick Stewart.

Everyone is totally committed to the concept and work together as an ensemble but special mention has to go to Stewart in his most chilling screen role to date. Another real standout is English actress Poots who nails the accent and delivers a career best performance with many of the best lines of the piece. It's also great to see Blue Ruin's Macon Blair back on the big screen.

Sean Porter’s cinematography fairly oozes off the screen in bilious tones that sell the dank isolated setting and the score by Brooke and Will (brothers of Macon) Blair leads each nerve jangling twist and turn.

This is a film which shows a real mastery of the audience, of how far to bend and stretch and extend a moment of plight or chase before delivering an explosive release. It’s an uncommonly visceral experience, and ideally one to share with an audience.

Green Room is near perfect thriller and destined to be one of the best films of the year. Don’t miss it in cinemas!

5/5

-Daniel Anderson