Review of Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) by Tyler G — 28 Dec 2018

Bad Times At The El Royale is filmmaking 101, Mr. Goddard demonstrates a type of basic yet stellar filmmaking influenced by the contemporary auteur culture of cinema. Goddard perfectly pieces the story through a visually appealing Wes Anderson-esque frames mixed with Tarantino-esque narrative arrangement (spiced with Coen Brothers, and Scorsese), although the pace of said arrangement is slow, the payoff is satisfying as every after end of a section, it was more and more intriguing to the audience; however, it is the same aspect that hurts the movie a little bit- and maybe this where most of the negative reviews are coming from, because the small mysterious sections that intrigues the audience also posts new mysteries and questions that sadly wasn't answered at the end of the movie, that's why even though the arc seemed finished, there's a lingering feeling of incompleteness to it. Props to this narrative arrangement as it also helped the ensemble shine without one actor/actress stealing the show.

Bad Times at El Royale is visually amazing, the characters are written well, and the reasonable slowly paced narrative pays-off for the most part.

I have read a review that said Bad Times is too clever for its own, and it's true it is clever, too clever maybe but it wasn't that bad and most certainly that cleverness did not harm the movie. But it is not that cleverness that slightly dented the film, it was Bad Times at El Royale biting more than it could chew. I'd agree that Bad Times at El Royale is not perfect, but boy is it not a beautiful imperfect piece of cinema.