Green Room
Short description
A struggling punk band, the Ain't Rights, is at the end of a disastrous tour and out of money when they accept a last-minute show at a remote club in rural Oregon. When they walk off stage, they discover that the venue is run by a white supremacist gang and that they have stumbled onto a murder. Along with a young woman they find backstage, the band members are herded into the green room, and the club's owner, Darcy, orders his men to make sure no witnesses leave the building. What follows is a standoff between the trapped musicians and the skinheads outside.
Jeremy Saulnier wrote and directed the film, which followed Blue Ruin in his filmography and preceded Hold the Dark. Anton Yelchin plays Pat, with Imogen Poots as Amber and Patrick Stewart as Darcy, alongside Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole and Callum Turner. The production was made for about 5 million dollars and brought in roughly 4 million worldwide.
On IMDb, the film holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from about 153,000 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 6.7 out of 10 from around 3,000 votes. Its critics' rating stands noticeably higher, at 7.7 out of 10 from 249 reviews, indicating that reviewers responded more strongly to it than general audiences did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The paintball story told in the film by Pat, played by Anton Yelchin, happened in the life of Jeremy Solnier. Rick Spears, mentioned in the story, is a real person.
- The film begins and ends with the same word.
- The idea for the scene where a body is dragged across the floor by a knife sticking out of its head was inspired by a documentary about prison riots that deeply impressed the director.
- The rock band, consisting of the main characters, plays to a pre-recorded backing track. Anton Yelchin (bass) and Alia Shawkat (guitar) could play musical instruments, but Callum Turner (vocals), according to the director, had absolutely no previous experience with music. Joe Cole specifically learned to play the drums before filming.
- At the end of the film, a book, "Dragons of Spring Dawning" (1985) from Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis's "Dragonlance Saga" series, is visible in the van the group was traveling in.
- During a meeting with viewers at the Fantastic Fest film festival in Austin, Texas, in 2015, Jeremy Saulnier stated that although the titles of two of his films contain a color name (blue and green), this happened purely by chance. The director joked that "Green Room" is, rather, part of the so-called "trilogy of helplessness" – films whose protagonists get into serious trouble, and survival requires skills they do not possess.
- The pose of the person with the machete on the film's poster is copied from the cover of the British punk rock group The Clash's third studio album, "London Calling" (1979).
- The band performs a cover of the song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" by the American hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys.
- Patrick Stewart recounted in one interview that, having finished reading the script at his home in the UK, he was so frightened that he locked all the doors and windows, turned on the alarm system, and poured himself a whiskey. Stewart immediately understood that he wanted to play the role of Darcy, as such distinctive roles of negative characters are rare, and the film should be captivating.
- Director Jeremy Saulnier explained why he eagerly took on the film. According to Saulnier, he knew that as he developed as a director, he would no longer have the opportunity to film such a dark film with a large number of violent scenes, and that young directors would certainly not be given such an opportunity. The director felt that after his previous film, "Blue Ruin," he was ready to take on such a complex project.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
