Respond to these rapid questions in our Green Room quiz and we will tell you which Green Room character you are. Play it now.
The suspense that is generated by live punk music is the primary focus of the punk rock thriller “Green Room,” rather than the actual sounds and sensations that are experienced while attending a punk show. In an early scene from “Blue Ruin,” writer and director Jeremy Saulnier explains and apologizes for his general approach to the punk scene. In this scene, a fledgling rocker played by Anton Yelchin explains why his band does not have a social media presence. He says that in order to experience what they’re offering, you have to be at the show, because otherwise the “texture” of the music is lost. Pat is an indecisive beta-male character who doesn’t truly come to life until after he witnesses a murder and is then forced to defend his band from militant neo-Nazis. The author may have purposefully given the impression that the character is pretentious. On the other hand, he demonstrates Saulnier’s point for him. The thriller “Green Room” is overly fussy, with dialogue that is so straightforward and shots that are arranged in such a mannered way that it is impossible not to be distracted by their precision. This is a deliberate flaw in an otherwise faultless and clean-burning machine that was created by Saulnier. You have to take the bad with the good in this situation: “Green Room” may be too schematic to fully capture the essence of its characters’ dingy environment, but it is also beautifully shot and has an economical pace.
When you first meet Pat and his crew, you can’t help but be impressed by how aggressively money-minded they are. In fact, you can’t help but be impressed by how money-minded they are. They are not exactly swimming in it, so it makes sense that this is the case. They talk about gigs while keeping the pay rates in mind, use the same phone, and siphon gas from the tanks of other vehicles as if they were seasoned professionals. Even when a booker interviews them for a college radio gig and asks them a question as inconsequential as “Name your desert island band,” they become flustered. It should come as no surprise, then, that when Pat has an unfortunate encounter with a group of skinheads who are congregated around a dead body, he and his companions already have one foot out the door. The Nazi punks that lock Pat and his crew in a graffiti-covered changing room take orders from the self-serious club owner Darcy Banker (Patrick Stewart), a guy that describes his club as a “movement, not a party.” Not only are they all business, but so are the guys that are out to get them: the Nazi punks that lock Pat and his crew in take orders from Darcy Banker.
The audience is reminded on multiple occasions by Saulnier that neither his protagonists nor his antagonists are walking ledger books, but rather scared people who happen to be too serious for their own good. According to “Green Room,” that sums up the essence of the punk scene perfectly: it is a scene that is fixated on authenticity and is populated by stern, self-made men. Saulnier earns some truly admirable, close-to-the-chest laughs whenever characters condescend to each other. One example is when Pat’s band opens a set with the Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” and their frontman whimpers “That was a cover” to an unsympathetic crowd of bigots. Saulnier earns these laughs because the audience is able to identify with the characters.
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On the other hand, Saulnier imitates his characters’ OCD-level exactitude, which is an extremely distracting choice on his part. It is one thing to concentrate on characters who respond to each encounter as though it is something for which they will eventually be required to provide a list of itemized excuses. To film them in such a way that every frame must represent that compulsive mentality is a whole different ballgame. Saulnier has an unhealthy obsession with the neatness and cleanliness of his characters. These individuals do pretty much everything with their mission in mind, including counting gun shells, searching the pockets of their adversaries, peeking under door slates, and so on. Pat’s friends may trip over their own feet on occasion, but listening to them talk as if they are always completely on top of everything gives the impression that they are too high-functioning to actually exist.
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Which brings me back to the point I was trying to make in the beginning: what kind of film about punk rockers doesn’t like punk music? Punk music is used as background noise in the movie directed by Saulnier. The sounds of feedback and death-metal growling get under the viewers’ skin on a level that is not quite subliminal due to the fact that these noises are frequently as loud as the voices of the various characters. In addition, we only see Pat’s band perform the cover song that was discussed earlier; the scene comes to a revealing conclusion with a group of punks moshing and trampling each other in slow motion, hip to hip and hand to shoulder. Saulnier places an emphasis on the senseless aggression that is characteristic of punk music. And through a series of captivating tracking shots and long takes, he does an excellent job of keeping the audience rooted in the present moment they find themselves in.
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But Saulnier doesn’t quite get the punchline of his film’s main joke: how can someone be both young and brash while also being conscientious? The game cast that Saulnier assembled, in particular Yelchin and “Blue Ruin” star Macon Blair, helps the audience believe that these characters could actually exist within the framework of a tongue-in-cheek thriller. On the other hand, you won’t ever believe that Pat and his group could actually exist in the real world. They are more than just overly wound to be considered punks, although that is a part of it. These guys just don’t make sense outside of “Green Room.”
For more personality quizzes check this: Maggies Plan Quiz.
