100 MOVIES IN A YEAR: #30 Green Room
This one kind of (okay, straight up does) break my rule about any movies I watch only counting towards the “100 in a year” goal if I’ve never seen them before, but I decided to cave and add Green Room to this list for one very good reason: I have watched it probably a half dozen times since I’ve started this whole project. Is this something I’ve been doing because I remain depressed, and am continuing to mainline media I’ve already seen, thus defeating the entire purpose of this whole thing? No. It is because Green Room is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, and is almost infinitely rewatchable.
Green Room is a perfectly made movie. This doesn’t mean I think it’s the best movie I’ve ever seen, only that the movie itself is executed in a way that I think would be impossible to improve, given its premise. This isn’t me selling it short; it’s not like I’d that say only some highbrow, AFI list-making FILM could be the greatest ever made, and that’s because the greatest movie ever made is The Thing. Green Room is still close though, and it’s certainly helped by the fact that it’s story of some young people in a hardcore band having to fight a group of neo-Nazis to the death has suddenly become incredibly politically relevant. You could even make the argument that is ends up including pro-antifa subtext, in that the member of the group who ends up both being and correct and understanding the reality situation the fastest is the one who almost immediately tries to convince the others that pre-emptive self-defense is their only hope.
The satisfaction that comes from dead Nazis aside, Green Room is insanely satisfying because there’s no fat on its bones. We learn everything we need to know about the characters by how they behave; no one ever talks about their past, except when Anton Yelchin tries to tell a story, but is repeatedly interrupted by his band mates. The movie clocks in at around 90 minutes (my favorite quality in a movie, holy shit) and every single performance is good and believable. The characters often act stupidly, but that’s because they’re afraid, which is making them stupid. Maybe the only quibble you could make is that characters are a little too accurate with some of their gun play in a couple moments, but literally who gives a shit. Green Room is a staggering achievement in the sub-genre of lean thrillers.
