Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) Review

"This is not a place for a priest, Father."

-Miles Miller

The El Royale Hotel, which is on the border of California and Nevada, has seen better days and doesn't get much business, but on one fateful night, seven strangers all find themselves at the El Royale.  Each has a dark secret, as does the hotel itself.  Some will not leave the hotel alive, but all of them are about to have a bad time.

What Works:

The first two-thirds of the movie follows each character and their own individual plot.  Their various stories interconnect, but it's mostly a series of different stories happening at the same time and place.  Each of these stories is interesting and it's a lot of fun to see where they intersect.  This is the strongest aspect of the film and it's a blast to watch.

The characters themselves are also very interesting.  Jeff Bridges is the standout of the crew, playing an aging priest with a dark past.  He is the most interesting character of the bunch and a lot of fun, but the rest of the cast is intriguing as well.  Jon Hamm plays a vacuum salesmen and just oozes southern-charm, but we quickly learn he isn't all he appears to be and adds an interesting dynamic to the plot.

Chris Hemsworth, who plays a Charles Manson-esque cult leader, is also very good.  I have some issues with his storyline, which I'll get to later, but I really enjoyed his performance, which was both charismatic and menacing.  I bought him as his Manson-esque character and he was very effective.

Finally, I love the style of this film.  The hotel looks great, the cinematography is solid, and I love how the storytelling is non-linear, so we see scenes play out multiple times from different perspectives, which gives us more insight into what is happening.  It's a fun mechanic and is utilized well in this film.

What Sucks:

The biggest problem with this movie occurs when Chris Hemsworth shows up in the film.  What's fun about the movie is all the individual stories interconnecting.  After he shows up, the story becomes very straightforward and focused on the conflict of the other characters versus Hemsworth.  It's not bad per say, but it's just not as fun or interesting as the earlier parts of the film.  And Hemsworth still does a solid job, I just think that the individual parts of this story are greater than the sum of its whole.

My other problem is the hotel being on the California/Nevada border.  It's cool and all, but they don't do anything with it.  The whole movie takes place in the lobby and on the Nevada side.  We don't ever go to the California side of the hotel, so I don't really know why the filmmakers took the time to set all of this up if they were never going to use it.

Verdict:

Bad Times at the El Royale is a fun mystery-thriller, with great stories, fun characters, and some excellent style.  It loses some steam in the last third of the movie and they don't do enough with the setting, but I had a blast watching the movie and trying to piece it all together.  Bad Times at the El Royale has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good