Bad times at the El Royale – a review

1969. Four strangers arrive at the El Royale hotel. A hotel which happens to be placed precisely on the Stateline between California and Nevada. Soon enough during their stay the little bits of darkness from their past rise to the surface and blood begins to flow.

I’ve always been  a big fan of the horror-movie Identity -Several strangers meet up at a hotel during a stormy night in that movie too. I guess it has to do with the stage-like element that resonates with me.

As a viewer (in this case) you don’t have to focus too much on locations because that hardly changes. Instead you can direct all your attention to the characters and their story. Which is something Bad Times at the El Royale tells very well. Though there are a few missteps.

I’ve decided to cut up the title of the movie into paragraphs as a handy way of structuring this review. Which automatically allows me to start with the ‘Bad’.

Bad...
I really enjoyed Bad times at the El Royale a lot. It’s one of those movies that enthrals from the very first frame (an empty hotel room). But there’s also a danger lurking when this happens because you (the viewer) ups the stakes. And it’s this ‘required perfection’ that Bad times at the El Royale can’t really deliver.

Basically the faults of El Royale can be captured in one word: Motown!

If you hate Motown music you should skip this movie altogether. I happen to love it but even I got occasionally annoyed by the amount of singing in this movie. Now, the singing is for a reason.

At one point; a very clever reason.

But I couldn’t help myself thinking that a sharper edit here and there would make the movie better; because the songs go on and on.
With a running time well over two hours, and all that singing, the movie feels far too long. This actually hurts the wonderful late entry of the Billy Lee-character. By the time he arrives all the foreshadowing has been washed away in song.

But the length of the songs is not the only editing-problem El Royale suffers.
A late-in-the-game flashback doesn’t help either. By that time the movie is brewing up to a big finale and at that precise moment the film springs a slow-moving flashback upon the viewer.

Then there’s the over-explanation the doesn’t always work. Take, for instance, the MacGuffin of the movie (which is in fact a movie reel); it’s like Bad times at El Royale is desperate to tell the viewer that this film reel involves one of the  Kennedys. The audience doesn’t need to know this!

All these annoyances could have been washed away with a smart cut here and there. It would have helped the movie tremendously if the running time was cut down to, let’s say, a sharp two hours ten.

Other issues (I have) with this movie are a bit more personal of nature. If for one couldn’t buy the Miller character. He feels far too young to be clouded by years of guilt. I understand that ‘youthful fear’ works marvellously on screen but still I never really believed the character as somebody carrying years of baggage.

The acting is great though, no problem there.

Then there are the little nitpicks like: the shoehorned end at the hotel. The sudden ‘drop’ / ‘forgetting’ of the Stateline plot point.

Is it limbo as some people online speculate; with each character playing one of the seven sins?

Or the fact that some plotlines don’t quite line up (one murder doesn’t make sense from a character-motivation-perspective. And who committed the first onscreen murder in the first place?).

But those little things would’ve been more than acceptable if the movie didn’t allow me so much time to think during it. Each time a new song came on it I had time to process what I saw before it. If the movie was tighter I would’ve glanced over it.

...Times at the...
But after the bad comes the good times. Bad times at the El Royale is a fresh character piece with some great performances from the cast. Especially Chris Hemsworth is having a blast as a Charles Manson persona who likes nothing better than to be in control; the ant-bully with a magnifying glass; and each ant is begging for more.

But that’s just because he has the most flamboyant scene-stealing character to work with. This is the character who wants to be in the spotlight whilst all the other character try to blend into the shadows.

Jon Hamm (accustomed to the time setting) fits into this second category perfectly as he does what he does best:  pulling up a quick-fire-talking-facade only to show a different side to the character when nobody is looking.

Jeff Bridges’ character, then, is playing on his natural charm throughout as a dementia suffering priest. This specific character-plot point isn’t fully played out in the movie. But it does give the character a nice layer that makes the viewer wonder if he is lying or if he really forgot. Ambiguity is the word here.

Next; Lewis Pullman who has the ‘Walking Dead: Glenn’ card and plays this fear beautifully. This is a tormented character that is there to play the ferryman between ‘good’ (Erivo’s character) and ‘evil’ (the rest). But like the ferryman over the river Styx: he will never be relieved of his burden.

To explain ‘The Glenn-card’: In the Walking Dead-comics the character Glenn dies in issue 100.

Now the TV-show-adaptation doesn’t necessarily follow the comics to the letter.

So the minute Glenn died in the comics people watching the show were terrified for Glenn to die on screen as well.

He could go any moment.

The producers –once they realized this- naturally had a lot of fun putting poor Glenn in various perilous situations.

Cynthia Erivo has the most uninteresting character to work with (no big demons in the closet here) but as the bright light between these vile people her character-work fits in contrast to the others. When Hemsworth is preaching all high and mighty she stabs through that façade with her expressive eyes alone. And that’s even before she verbally puts him down. And even though she sings far too much in this movie she has a marvellous voice.

To end with Cailee Spaeny who deserves a special mention because, with the relatively small part she got handed, she managed to create a sense of constant brewing menace in her character. I thought I knew ‘insanity’ when I saw Heath Ledger’s Joker. I was wrong.

But well written and acted characters are nothing without a cleverly written plot. Bad times at the El Royale is a thriller at its core and the movie knows it. There are cleverly written tension scenes that are sprinkled throughout the sordid tale that the wonderful performances enhance these scenes.

Accustomed to the time setting these ‘tension scenes’ are actually very Hitchcockian in nature relying on both the audiences’ knowledge and the state of the character.
Especially the ‘game’ (Chechov) element is a brilliant find. As Psycho made showers scary so does Bad times at the El Royale make a roulette ball terrifying (Roulette: the Devil's game).

The hard cuts and sound effects in those ‘tension-scenes’ are terrific.

To end this segment with the dialogue. Dialogue wise the movie isn’t very impressive. Again it is Hemsworth who has the best monologues in his warped speeches. And Jon Hamm is having a blast saying outrageous racist things as if they were compliments.
But cutting it down to the basics the words don’t really matter.
Most of all Bad times at the El Royale uses the medium of film to show us looks and things instead of focussing on the  talking.

...El Royale...
The setting of the hotel (or motel really) is delicious to watch. If you enjoyed the warped worlds of Fallout you will enjoy the setting of this hotel. From the centre staged jukebox to the food dispensers to people dressed in sixties outfits. The whole screen screams Tupperware at you!

But visually it is, above all, the camera motion that is a treat. There are several smart long-takes in this movie that you only register as such after the fact (and then you start second guessing).

One location (a dark hallway) in the movie makes good usage of this continuous guided motion of the camera by not allowing the viewer to see the hallway completely. The camera is constantly at an angle facing the wall so that the field of vision for the viewer is diminished; which of course cranks up the tension.

Then there’s another scene that is (literally) all about ‘field of vision’ which is marvellous to beholds. Though, it’s a bit too long –see my previous critique- but the idea behind this scene is quite clever.

That’s how I see Bad times at the El Royale: a cleverly constructed thriller with some genuine original tent pole tension moments. However, it is too long for its own good even though the setting, acting and camerawork are a marvel.

This movie fall into the same trap as many did before it (The thin red line comes to mind. Though people will certainly disagree): taking too much time to tell as story also hurts a movie. Bad times at the El Royale has all the makings of a classic, it just needs some additional editing.