Screen Savor: Cat and mouse

You might feel like your heart is going to pound its way through your chest, almost to the very last scene of writer/director Jeremy Saulnier's riveting third full-length feature Green Room (A24/Broadgreen), but it's only a movie. Because of that, the film takes its place at the head of the class of the new generation of horror/suspense flicks such as The Witch, It Follows and The Babadook.

The Ain't Rights, a young punk band from the Washington, DC (Arlington, actually, as one member points out) are scrambling to survive on tour, reduced to siphoning gas from other cars to fuel its van and playing shows to small crowds in Mexican restaurants. To make up for the latter, the quartet – Pat (Anton Yelchin), Sam (Alia Shawkat), Reece (Joe Cole) and lead vocalist Tiger (Callum Turner) – accepts an offer to play a better-paying opening act matinee gig from mohawked journalist/show promoter Tad (David W. Thompson), at a club where his cousin Daniel (Mark Webber) and Daniels' girlfriend Emily (Taylor Tunes) are employed.

Warned that the crowd might be a little on the right-wing skinhead side, the band is unprepared for how far to the right the white-power patrons lean. However, the swastika and SS graffiti and stickers emblazoned on the walls of the green room give them a better idea. Being the punks that they are, the Ain't Rights open their set with the Dead Kennedys "Nazi Punks Fuck Off," which, as you might imagine, doesn't go over well with the crowd. Can things possibly get worse? You betcha!

Just as the band is about to load out its equipment, Pat pops into the green room to fetch the mobile phone Sam left to charge, only to discover that Emily has been murdered. Her body's surrounded by the members of the headlining band, as well as bouncer Big Justin (Eric Edelstein) and her friend Amber (Imogen Poots). An attempt to dial 911 goes awry and suddenly the band, along with witness Amber, finds itself being held captive until club owner and Fuhrer-figure Darcy (an ominous Patrick Stewart) arrives to straighten out the situation in his distinctive and destructive fashion.

What follows is some of the most exhilarating suspense and stomach-churning gore to hit the screen in a long time. Handguns, shotguns, box cutters and machetes all play supporting roles. A pack of pit-bulls, trained to mutilate by Werm (Brent Werzner), also play a prominent part, although Green Room's comment on the loyalty of dogs is as touching as it is terrifying.

Perhaps what's most remarkable about Green Room is its prescience. Filmed before unstable Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had fully ignited his hateful following, Green Room is equal parts message movie and horror story. Trump supporters give it three Ks!

In a surprising way, Green Room and Keanu (WB) have something in common. Both films feature guns and other weapons and lots of violence. Both films also featured domesticated animals in precarious situations. That, however, is where the similarities end.

Keanu is essentially an extended Key and Peele routine that goes on much longer than it has a right to. Nerdy cousins Rell (Jordan Peele) and George Michael-obsessed Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) are left to their own devices after Rell's breakup with his girlfriend and Clarence's wife Hannah's (Nia Long, who played gay in The Broken Hearts Club) weekend away with daughter Belle.

When a stray kitten wanders into stoner Rell's life he suddenly finds new purpose. But when said stray kitten, christened Keanu by Rell, is unceremoniously abducted during a home break-in, the cousins don't take the theft lightly. Soon, the pair, determined to find Keanu and return him safely home find themselves visiting strip clubs (such as Hot Party Vixens aka HPV), drug dens, Anna Faris' house, and generally being situated dead center in a gang turf war.

Stupider than it is silly, Keanu is a well-intentioned disappointment. We expect so much more from Key and Peele and, frankly, Keanu stinks like a litter box.