Review of Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) by Gianni S — 25 Oct 2018

It's kinda funny because as much hype there was for director Drew Goddard's last film The Cabin in the Woods (2012) it just didn't work for me. I found the ending to be just really random and I thought everyone overhyped it for me.

For the last two weeks people have been talking to me telling me to check out Bad Times at the El Royale. I had only seen the teaser trailer and pretty much went in blind. I absolutely enjoyed my time with this one and am looking forward to Drew Goddard's next film (apparently the X-Force film!).

The movie is a great movie that I won't spoil because that would ruin everything, so i'll try and keep it minimum here. Set in 1969 at the El Royale hotel in Lake Tahoe we find ourselves following a group of strangers that show up to the seemingly abandoned hotel.

We have Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges) a priest with a dark past, Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) an inspiring singer, Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson) a hippie on the run, Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm) a sly vacuum salesman, and then Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman) the jack of all trades that helps run the hotel with a very dark past as well.

The film is told in a sort of Tarantino/Coen brothers kind of blend. Very stylistic with a lot of just really great moments. It features great performances and I was hard pressed to find a person I didn't find interesting.

I will say the hotel itself is practically a character itself. It's built on the border of California and Nevada with the split showing throughout the hotel. The film also features Chris Hemsworth as a mysterious leader named Billy Lee.

I really enjoyed this one and I would recommend going in blind...I'm serious don't even watch a trailer for this one. If I had any kind of gripe I would say it would be that the movie runs just a smudge too long.

The last quarter of the film sort of kinda stops and although it didn't bother me much this movie could have just been slightly tighter. Overall, solid film and highly recommend checking this one out.