After Chris Hemsworth became a box office draw with the first Thor movie, it led to the eventual release of one of his earlier finished roles, in Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods. It was one of the earliest examples of a movie that I didn’t watch the trailers for, so my experience was exactly what the film was aiming for, and made for one of the most unique horror films of the decade. Afterwards, he went on to get an Oscar nomination for adapting The Martian to script. Goddard has proven with his work with Joss Whedon that he has a similar approach to character interactions and unique high-concepts; heck, he was even Sony’s top choice for The Sinister Six movie, and is currently developing the upcoming X-Force movie. As you could imagine, hearing his name has become one to truly spark interest at almost anything he does at this point.
That’s when we check into his newest flick, Bad Times at the El Royale; the film takes place at a bi-state hotel in the late-60’s, and we follow the strangers with secrets premise, involving criminals and a crazy cult lurking not too far. In other words, think sort of Identity (2003) if it was helmed by Tarantino.
This movie is like Drew Goddard’s love letter to the 60’s, and he makes sure to cover nearly every aspect of it in this kind of film; the politics, the food, the music, the religiously cultural status, the underlying layers of corruption and evil brewing about, and, of course, Jon Hamm. There’s just this nostalgic atmosphere in how the film is portrayed, both in its style and its dialogue; it definitely feels like a film that was pulled out from the beginnings of the New Hollywood Era.
Much like The Hateful Eight, each of the characters all have something that you eventually discover about them, and it’ll either have you feel sick to your stomach or having you feel empathy for someone not all good. And what I love most about them, is just hearing them kick back and just shoot the shit with each other, talking about stuff that makes you feel like you’re part of the conversation. It also helps, when you’ve got an excellent cast to perform to it; Jeff Bridges as a bank robbing priest, Cynthia Erivo as a lounge singer looking for ends meet, John Hamm as a door-to-door salesman, Chris Hemsworth as a Charles Manson-esque cult leader, Cailee Spaeny as one of Hemsworth’s brainwashed followers, Lewis Pullman as the bellboy with secrets, and even Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey) proved she could give a good performance.
*SPOILERS*
The biggest complaint that I’ve heard is that the film does take its time to pick up in certain places; it makes sense, considering some scenes will end up repeating just from a different character’s perspective, and not everyone can adapt to that kind of film making. The runtime also becomes more noticeable, considering it takes until the third act for Hemsworth’s character to show up, and he was heavily advertised.
*END OF SPOILERS*
Overall, if you have a 60’s craving you need to fix, I highly recommend you check out (or IN, in this case) Bad Times at the El Royale; I would go into more detail, but with how there’s a lot of mystery to unfold, a good amount of surprise, a decent balance of violence, and dialogue and characters you’ll want to be around with for, I think the less I say the better for you to enjoy. If you missed your chance to see it in theatres, don’t miss out on it when it comes out on blu-ray.
Rating: A
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