Beforehand, I did manage to see the film that made me first here of Sauliner, Blue Ruin. A lot of people like it. I did not think it was as good as people are saying. But I still thought it was a solid revenge thriller.
As for Green Room, this definitely has a more excited premise and Saulnier ups the violence a bit. There is also a couple of well known actors involved in this in the form of Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin. Like with all Saulnier's films, he does back down on the violence and it is never gratuitous. The second half does have moments where the peoples decisions seemed out of character. But I was still on-board with what was going on-screen.
The performances were really good overall. Yelchin leads and plays the under-dog role really well and gives us a character we can root for. Patrick Stewart is great also. He gives us a villain that may be dangerous, but never shows it and is always cold in the decisions he makes in the film.
Loads of great supportive roles by most notably Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole (not that one) and Callum Turner. It was also great to see Macon Blair return after playing the main character in Blue Ruin.
I definitely enjoyed this more than Blue Ruin. But I still feel we are only seeing hints of how great Saulnier can be. He continues to make films that look to end up being cult classics. While Blue Ruin was a slow-burner, the pacing is much more fast-paced and romping at times. It is really well shot and the grungy look of it seems to fit in well with the directors style.
The violence is brutal and stomach churning at times. But it all means something and is an integral part to the story. Speaking of the story, the script was pretty good and it is becoming an underrated success for Saulnier's films. The characters were given a surprising amount of depth to give them all enough time for you to care for them. However there were some parts of the dialogue that felt forced and forgettable.
Despite still feeling that Blue Ruin and Green Room are not as good most people say it is, I will still be interested what Saulnier makes next. He is a director that seems to be out of his time period. His genre based films fit more into the films that were being made in the 70's which is great to see. We need more directors like Saulnier and I will be interested to what his next project will be.
Rating: 7/10
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