NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Feb.-Mar. 2016)

[Chris Knipp]

GREEN ROOM (Jeremy Saulnier 2015). Preview: it opens limited 15 Apr. 2016, wider 29 Apr. Full review then. Saulnier shows even more technical skill at doing realistic clumsy violence than he did in his previous Blue Ruin. That one was about a solitary man on a revenge mission. This about a young punk band fighting off angry white suprematists at an Oregon enclave is bigger, better, more violent. It will get more attention, more audience. But in story terms it's dumber and less interesting, a step backwards: it's just a movie Saulnier long wanted to make. Complicated wrangling of action and multiple cast led him to hire a cinematographer instead of shooting himself. Well received when it opened at Cannes Directors Fortnight last year, it probably will do well with US critics. But the older audience must avoid. I frankly could barely follow and don't know the music. Watched at Park Ave. Screening Room 17 Mar. 2016.