Showing posts with label Jeremy Saulnier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeremy Saulnier. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Green Room

After siphoning gas to make to it to their latest college radio interview and barely paying gig, a punk rock band is hooked up to play at an unbeknownst white supremacist compound bar where they accidentally walk in on a drug fueled murder, barricade themselves in a back room, and devise a plan to fight for dear life against the gathering of homicidal skinheads, led by their ruthless gang leader (Patrick Stewart) just outside the door. Like his forgoing Blue Ruin, Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room is intense, violent, rurally set pulse pounding pulp with a singular screenplay that still manages to work in some nice touches. Anton Yelchin is strong in one of his final screen roles, the against type casting of Stewart is passable, and Macon Blair, who starred in Blue Ruin, is quite good again, here in a supporting role as one of Stewart's lieutenants.
*** 1/2 out of ****

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Blue Ruin

A mentally ill drifter receives the news that the man responsible for his parent's deaths is returning to their rural childhood town. After dispatching the killer in an unplanned, slipshod manner, he finds himself the target of a manhunt led by the recently deceased's redneck kin. Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin is a competently made, carefully photographed, bloody and deeply intense thriller that throws in some some illogical plot detail and opts for an unnecessarily over the top shootout conclusion. Macon Blair contributes a fine leading performance.
*** out of ****