Bad Times at the El Royale

2018 mysterious thriller

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Six people and one desk clerk converge on the El Royale, a tacky motel on the California/Nevada line.

On the one hand, you have to credit writer/director Drew Goddard for making something cohesive out of these divergent characters and their individual narratives that led them to this same place and time. Almost embarrassingly Tarantino-esque with its non-chronological structure, too-cool period characters, loudly hipster soundtrack choices, and even chapter titles, the narrative deceives you into thinking it's better than it actually is. The film's entertaining from beginning to end with twists and turns that keep you guessing, but when you look back on just how empty it all is, you're left a bit cold. I mean, really, what does this add up to? The only things I learned from these characters' shenanigans is that I might have a thing for Dakota Johnson and definitely have a thing for Chris Hemsworth's torso.

Torso aside, Hemsworth's appearance was where this really started to go downhill. Perhaps with this many mini-plots colliding into one gigantic mess of secrets and violence, it was bound to collapse on itself. When Hemsworth gets to the titular motel, things get very silly and more than a little mean. There's one diversion into flashback territories during the lengthy chunk of film that Hemsworth is doing his thing, and that was easily my least favorite part of the movie. That might be because Dakota Johnson was not walking around as much though.

But for you male Fifty Shades fans, I can tell you that she might have been tied up at one point. You perverts.

I thought everybody was good here. Bridges didn't grumble and mumble his way through this like he's done in movies the last few years, and he does some sneaky things to bring some depth to his character. Like almost all of the rest of these characters, he's pretty unlikable, but Bridges manages to make this priest of his somebody you can almost root for. Cynthia Erivo is not an actress I know, but I thought she was great here. And she's got a set of pipes that she shows off in a couple of great scenes, one featuring a metronome which, if you know me at all, you know I always enjoy seeing in movies. Jon Hamm, sometimes with a ridiculous fake accent, and Lewis Pullman with the perfect mixture of innocence and something very very dark, are also very good. Oh, and Nick Offerman is also kind of in this.

This has enough style and some great cinematography that makes it worth watching even if it doesn't work as a whole. The pieces make it worth watching, maybe even a second time. As a fan of kitsch and tackiness, I enjoyed the look of the El Royale. Seems like I've been seeing jukeboxes a lot in movies. I liked how a few of the scenes were shown from multiple viewpoints because it added texture to something that we'd already seen. The overlapping storylines worked, and I enjoyed some of the dark humor. And there was one perfectly choreographed and executed extended shot that I really loved.

What I didn't love: a mystery that remains a mystery, like Marsellus Wallace's briefcase. It just made this seem that much more like a Tarantino rip.

I'm really not sure about my feelings about this movie. Part of me thinks that it's better than I think it is, but part of me thinks it's worse. Parts of it will stick in my mind for a while, and parts of it kind of irritated me.