Friday 1 July 2016

30/06/16 Green Room (2016)

The third film by the very talented Jeremy Saulnier, his last one being the fantastic Blue Ruin: http://filmplop.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/110714-blue-ruin-2013.html and before that he done a film called Murder Party which has one of the funniest scenes in any film ever made.

Anyway, in this film a struggling young band find themselves desperate for any paying gigs, so end up agreeing to play a backwoods/backwards white supremacist bar in a deeply isolated, wooded location.
Showing an admirable disdain for their audience, they (very amusingly) open with a cover of The Dead Kennedy's 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off'.

After the gig, they wander backstage to stumble across the scene of an unpleasant murdernasty and hole themselves up in the green room of the title. Things go from bollock-shaped to even worse as the aryan cunts decide it's best to leave no witnesses.

It's extremely unlikely that Mr Sauliner will ever read this fucking bollocks, but, if he does, I would like to say, once again, good work sir!
This film is fucking excellent. Every character is pin-sharp, believable and has exactly the right amount of camera time. The script is spot-on, not a single weak performance and the photography (D.O.P. a chap named Sean Porter) retains the bleak, washed out look of Sauliner's previous films which works in the film's favour without becoming a stylistic distraction.

It should also be be mentioned that this is one of Anton Yelchin's last films. As anyone who reads this shit regularly will know, we're not ones for dropping casual plaudits on actors, but that young fella genuinely had something. Every role we saw him in, including his standout performance in the otherwise fucking terrible Terminator Salvation, was one he managed to fill with warmth, vulnerability and, at the risk of sounding pretentious, honesty. He was one of the rare ones who lived up to the praise he received.

As a final note, in the last week or so, England appears to have become a nightmarish theme park dreamt up by somebody who'd happily make the fictional bar in this film their local. With that in mind:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/29/britons-urged-to-wear-safety-pins-in-solidarity-with-immigrants-safetypin

I remain hopeful.

Cheers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4062536/
10/10

Perkin.


29/06/16 Before I wake (2016)

Fairly generic spooker, but, if I'm being generous, with a little more depth than most. Not much, just enough to make it a little more interesting than many of 'em.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3174376/
5.9/10

Perkin.