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BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (2018)
Bad Times at the El Royale poster

CAST
JEFF BRIDGES
CYNTHIA ERIVO
XAVIER DOLAN
JON HAMM
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
DAKOTA JOHNSON
NICK OFFERMAN
LEWIS PULLMAN
CAILEE SPAENY
SHEA WHIGHAM

WRITTEN BY
DREW GODDARD

PRODUCED BY
DREW GODDARD
JEREMY LATCHAM

DIRECTED BY
DREW GODDARD

GENRE
CRIME
MYSTERY
THRILLER

RATED
AUS:MA
UK:15
USA:R

RUNNING TIME
141 MIN

 

 

Bad Times at the El Royale image

In filmmaker Drew Goddard’s second feature, he skirts the line between good and bad, right and wrong, pretension and entertainment, in the curious oddball of a movie Bad Times at the El Royale.

It is clear Drew Goddard is a filmmaker with something to say.  It would be nice, however, if he would just cut to the chase and say it. That is the feeling that permeates after watching Bad Times at the El Royale, a curious mix of Quentin Tarantino style exploitation tropes and weighty themed philosophising that at the very least, will make its audience think after the credits role. Exactly what they will think, however, is a mystery. Odds on many will begin with “WTF?!”

Same could be said of Goddard’s first movie Cabin in the Woods, yet at least that movie had a strong sense of humour to it. It’s an element that Bad Times at the El Royale could have benefited from. Not to say that it isn’t an interesting movie. Far from it. Yet in a film that continuously speaks about blurred lines, Goddard often crosses over to the side of pretention.

Bad Times at the El Royale is a period piece set in 1969, yet the themes within is very much timeless. At a shady hotel knows as the “El Royale” that is situated on the California- Nevada border, four strangers converge: elderly Catholic priest Father Flynn (Jeff Bridges); aspiring singer Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo); vacuum salesman Dwight Broadbeck (Jon Hamm); and mysterious drifter Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson). True to form all of these characters have dark secrets, with Emily’s especially sinister in the form of cult leader Billy Lee (Christ Hemsworth), who has come calling at the El Royale for his Rose (Cailee Spaeny), Emily’s sister and Billy’s accomplice in a string of Charles Manson style murders.

Hemsworth’s Billy Lee serves as the twisted centre on which Bad Times and the El Royale revolves. It is through Billy Lee’s twisted sermons that Goddard lays down his vision of how the nature of good and evil, right vs wrong, can be manipulated into a graceless, Darwinian screed. It is no coincidence that 1969 was the chosen time period, with cultural upheaval and political corruption leaving one generation after another adrift without an anchor to situate themselves spiritually.

Goodard (himself raised Catholic) does balance this story of halves and counters through compelling religious messaging. This is especially found in the connection between Jeff Bridges’ Father Flynn and hotel concierge Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman), a devout Catholic haunted by his service of duty in the Vietnam War. True to form in this film where deceit and facade spring at every turn, Bad Times at El Royale doesn’t serve its form of revelation and salvation on a silver plate. There is much to like about that.

 

***1/2

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