Allan Watched "Bad Times at the El Royale"
Visually stunning and full of intense twists and turns, Bad Times at the El Royale survives its script’s short-comings to be one of the most exhilarating movies of the year.
Gut Feeling
This movie packs a punch. From its eerily captivating opening scene with Nick Offerman to its thrilling conclusion, Bad Times at the El Royale keeps you locked in throughout. It is a slow build, with heart stopping surprises, and writer/director/producer Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, The Martian) allows you to live in each scene and take in the tension. There are some glaring holes to the story, which stops this film short of being really great, but it is worth your money and your time.
Stars On The Rise
Remember the name Cynthia Erivo. Broadway fans know Erivo from her Tony-award winning performances of the last few years, but this movie is her introduction to film fans, and she does not disappoint. The EGOT waiting to happen plays Darlene Sweet, a singer trying to make ends meet who happens upon this damned hotel, and she is truly spectacular. She gets plenty of opportunities to show off her big voice, but her emotional resilience throughout leads to the best performance of the movie, which says a lot considering who she shares the screen with. Erivo will be in the upcoming Widows, and is currently filming as the titular star of Harriet, the Harriet Tubman bio-pic. She should probably make some room next to her Tonys’.
The rest of the cast is great. Jeff Bridges (Last Picture Show, Cray Heart, True Grit) does is his thing as Father Flynn, and plays off Erivo extremely well. Jon Hamm is delightfully strong as Seymour Laramie Sullivan, and he frankly deserves an award for that lovely bayou accent. But the real stand out has to be Lewis Pullman, who will basically pull your heart out of your chest as he emerges in this film. It is only his third credit I can find, but I do not see how the 25-year-old won’t use this as a jumping off point for big roles in the future.
Then you have Chris Hemsworth (mother-truckin Thor), Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades), and 21-year-old Cailee Spaeny, who could have ended up with throw-away performances when lined up against their impressive co-stars, but they actually round out the film perfectly. Johnson is actually pretty badass, and Hemsworth plays a pretty convincing cult-leader. All in all, this cast delivers the goods.
Visually Successful With A Script Full Of Holes
Goddard and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey will have a lot of production and direction noms coming their way this winter. The movie is beautiful. The hotel itself is magically perverse, and the thrills are captured brilliantly. The opening seen with Offerman on its own is an achievement, and I was worried if the rest of the movie would not live up to its strong start, but it surely does. There have been plenty of beautiful neo-noir films over the years, but this one lines up with some of the best looking movies over the last couple of decades.
Where this film suffers, however, is the story. When watching, the gaps and loose ends aren’t cumbersome or take too much away from the overall product, but there is a lot of head scratching when you take inventory of the whole story afterwards. The dedication to the room-by-room lens of the film is effective in action, but it doesn’t sustain to the end well enough considering how essential it is to the story. I won’t get too much more into it to avoid spoilers, but there is enough missing to be a major ding to the film’s standing among the other top movies of 2018.
Perfect Music
Great soundtrack. 10/10. Playing bumpin’ oldies with the backdrop of chaos is so effective. Add the singing performances in crucial moments by Erivo and the suspenseful silence to foil the jukebox, and you have to give the overall use of music an A+.
Random Thoughts
I will 100% join any cult run by Chris Hemsworth.
I could listen to Jon Hamm say “accouterments” in a Cajun accent on loop for hours.
There is a good chance we look back at this movie a few years from now and revel in the fact that Erivo, Spaeny, and Pullman all launched their careers in the same movie. All three seem primed for big-time success.
There are no true title drops, but they do say “bad time” once, and I imagined the parenthetical “at the El Royale”, so I’m going to count it!
Hemsworth literally walking through a field of flowers felt forced, but who cares. Times are tough and we deserve it.
I feel like this would work as a play. Maybe because hotels are easy to transform on stage, but we also spend so much time in each scene that I think it would work.
The state line split works well throughout.
I got a big smile on my face when Jim O’Heir makes it on screen. Love you Jerry!
Quick Hits:
How many times have I seen this movie?
First time!
Where was I watching it?
In theaters with Kellye. I consumed popcorn and diet root beer, obvs. I did have to deal with a woman eating popcorn like it was her last meal, to the point where Kellye, who has 20 times more patience than I do, even commented on her afterwards.
Did Kellye Watch it? If Yes, did she like it. If no, would she like it?
Yes and she liked it! Kellye was fully prepared to fall asleep during the movie, but was wide-eyed throughout, which is a great review on its own. The plot holes did, however, bother her well into the night.
Favorite fact I learned from Wikipedia
Another movie that almost had Beyonce. So I will repeat as I did with A Star Is Born: let’s give it a couple years and just remake it with the Queen in it. We deserve it.
Favorite part
That first scene is magical.
Least favorite part
The cult scene was a little much…
Would I recommend this movie and why?
Yes! It is really exciting to watch and it is worth seeing it in theaters.
So What Does Allan Give It?
One gold thumbs up! Overall, a score of 80. Here is a GIF of Hemsworth being sexy to celebrate.
