Genre:
Mystery, Thriller
Produced by: Drew
Goddard, Jeremy Latcham
Directed by:
Drew Goddard
Written by:
Drew Goddard
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee
Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Chris Hemsworth
Runtime: 141 minutes
SYNOPSIS:
Set in the 1960’s, a group of strangers
converge for a seemingly normal night at the rundown hotel El Royale. But
there’s a catch: they are no normal strangers, and most of them have deep, dark
secrets to bury. And little do they know that this one particular night is what
it takes to test each of their resolve.
REVIEW:
No other writer-director out there is probably
as innovative as Drew Goddard. It’s
not as if he has invented a new genre throughout his career. However, he has
built this unusual reputation as a mix-and-match style filmmaker who takes two
genres that don’t generally go along in theory and not just make the
combination work, but also help reinvent each of them. His motion picture
screenplay debut 2008’s Cloverfield
is the prime example of Goddard’s
experimental touch, a splicing and dicing of mismatched elements like low
budget found footage movie and big budget Kaiju movie that gave birth to one of
the landmark creations in the 21st century cinema. In the
forthcoming years, Goddard has been
responsible for cult creations like the slasher horror-meets-meta satire Cabin in the Woods (2012) (Goddard’s directorial debut) and award-nominated
creations like the Golden Globe nominated for the Musical/Comedy category space
film-meets-Robinson Crusoe the Martian
(2015).
But, by far, his most unique creation is his second directorial effort Bad Times at the El Royale. In terms of the
marketing, it’s much more straightforward than Goddard’s previous works. The film sells itself to the mainstream
audience as the conventional Agatha
Christie-esque murder mystery, set in a single location-meets-film noir type
of thriller.
At its entirety, Bad Times at the El Royale is anything but conventional. It’s Goddard’s attempt at commercializing a niche, arthouse thriller that proves satisfying.
This film is so much its own thing that it is almost impossible to specify it
into any particular genres. Yes, certain plot points here draw inspirations
from the murder mystery and film noir genre. But in truth, Bad Times is a dismantling of everything people are familiar about
the two genres.
The film sets its characters up in a way
that fits the murder mystery/noir archetypes. Having sat through quite a lot of
murder mystery and noir films in the past, it would have been easy by now to
identify which one is the morally flawed antihero, the femme fatale, the crook or
that unknowing character unfortunately stuck in the middle of the muck. As the
plot starts to kick in though, it takes these archetypes towards unexpected
directions that continue to pull the rug under its audience at every turn. It
is a deconstruction on these archetypes that is well executed thanks to the
screenplay’s emphasis and considerable care to its characters.
In fact, watching Bad Times is
equivalent to watching a stage play. Like any plays, the spine that holds all
the pieces together is the back-and-forth between characters. Quite a lot of
its runtime is dedicated to characters taking turns visually and verbally
telling other characters their personal back stories.
Bad
Times at the El Royale tries to resurrect the lost art of character
building in ensemble movie filmmaking. So often, there is a huge gap between
the main characters and the supporting characters. On the one end of the
spectrum are characters that will play major roles in the film’s three-act
structure, and on the other end are characters that are essentially plot
devices or red herrings.
Goddard sidesteps those
clichéd trappings by blurring the line between the so-called main characters and
supporting characters. This film doesn’t really have any main character or
supporting character. Or the other way around, everyone here is equally the
main character and the supporting character.
It’s that feeling of uncertainty given
to its characters that enhances the film’s mystery and suspense elements. It
treats all of its characters as suspects, which makes for a unique viewing that
encourages the audience’s participation. Without having a main character tell
us what to feel, it allows us to be the jury of our own story, listening to
each of the character’s testimonies, and deliberate for ourselves on who to
trust.
Beyond functioning as a genre-bending
piece, Bad Times at the El Royale does
have deeper things to say about human nature. The film uses its characters to
explore the duality of man and how it is something that is inevitably ingrained
to each and every one of them. Humans are in some way both good and evil and, an
aspect that is inherent to the murder mystery/noir narrative, both an honest
person and a liar.
So much of the film’s tensions come from
characters trying to draw the other characters’ real selves out from their
hiding. These are moments that are built subtly through simple, mundane
dialogues yet directed by Goddard in
such a way that feels like we are watching a high-stake chess game.
Still, as a film meant for the big
screen consumption, Bad Times at the El Royale also uses the cinematic
canvas to further bring home its message through visual metaphors. The presence
of a hotel room somewhat plays an integral part in representing what is truth
and what is lie. In the characters’ eyes, their rooms are like their personal
Pandora’s Box, a place reserved for their secrets and dark past.
It’s a viewpoint that is best reflected
through their contradictive behavior when they’re outside the hotel room and
when they’re inside the hotel room. The point is the bigger the space, the more
restricted the characters become in the way they express themselves. Like
during the characters’ first interaction, everyone appears normal and unsuspecting.
However, it’s the kind of persona they use as a method of defense mechanism. When
they’re outside the hotel room, their mindset is set on keeping their personal
Pandora’s Box locked.
In contrast to their calculated attitude
around other people, when they’re in their room, alone, it is where they can
finally show their true colors, where they deem it safe to unlock their personal
Pandora’s Box. It is a message told so brilliantly at one point in the film through
a long tracking shot of the hotel rooms that follows these seemingly
unsuspecting characters doing something suspicious.
Basically, the inciting point comes when
another character interferes with the other character’s personal Pandora’s Box,
in which the whole murder mystery/noir aspect of the story comes into play. But
the film doesn’t just use these unsuspecting characters’ turn towards crime as an
example of human’s duality. A scene as simple as a character taking a wig off becomes
effective in showing that everyone is naturally both an honest person and a
liar, criminal or not.
Beyond the psychological subtext,
there’s also some spiritual subtext that lies underneath Bad Times’ surface. Redemption is a term that’s hinted quite a lot
during the character back stories, and it’s the thing that the motley crew of
strangers have in common, the thing that drives their actions and decision
making throughout the film. Only here, in typical thriller fashion, it is a
pursuit of redemption that’s elevated into a life-or-death situation.
Like any redemption story, a lot of the
character arcs revolve around their desperate attempts to exercise past demons
that’s coming back to haunt them, which is made more difficult when those
demons take the physical form of bloodthirsty criminals, cult leaders and other
kinds of shady people. The film deals with the various ways these redemption
seekers try to move on with their lives, whether by confronting their demons or
running away from them.
It’s almost coincidental by then that
all the characters that converge in the hotel happen to be the most broken,
rotten out of the bunch, notwithstanding the priest character. What Goddard’s script does with Jeff Bridges’ character is interesting.
People often perceive a priest as a saintly figure, the bridge that connects
mankind with God, and to relate that with the film’s redemption subtext, the
person sinners usually seek for forgiveness. However, once the film peels back
the layers of this particular character, the priest turns out to be like
everyone, a character with a dark past in dire need of redemption. He is both
its most messed-up and sympathetic character, with his clergy robe symbolizing
the struggles of a redemption seeker than a seasoned redeemer.
It’s that sense of struggle and stake within
each of the character’s separate, yet thematically interconnected redemption arcs
that are felt in Goddard’s writing.
There is not a single character in the film that is there just to make up the numbers.
Different demons might have haunted these characters, but there’s no denying
that by the time the end credits roll, everyone has a strong emotional reason to
be in the story.
As a technical achievement, Bad Times at the El Royale is a well-crafted
production. The film does an immaculate job in recreating the 60’s aesthetics. Nothing
spells 60’s more in the film than a glimpse of the El Royale’s vast, Art Deco lobby
in the opening. It’s an imagery that reinforces our idea of the happy days of
the 60’s: clean, glossy, idyllic. Some might say it’s the last place one would
imagine to use as a setting for a thriller. Others might say it’s a perfect setting
for a thriller, how a place that looks so utopian and too good to be true can
be the deadliest place to be.
Another 1960’s touch the film instills
is the rare return of inter titles in the cinematic form. It’s used for scene
transitions to remind the audience of the character flashback that comes after.
It’s more of a stylistic choice than plot choice, but it’s another proof of Goddard’s commitment in making this
film feels as 1960’s as possible.
One more element that sums up the era:
the music. The film is filled with a medley of 1960’s music that will please the
more nostalgic viewers, particularly fans of Motown music. Beyond nostalgia,
what’s more amazing about the 1960’s music here is how Goddard can seamlessly interweave those tunes into the film’s
plot-wise important sequences. Without going into too much detail, there is one
scene involving a character singing, another character trying to remove a piece
of floorboard and another character walking around with a hunting rifle in hand
that proves that creating suspense through a crazy blend of easy-listening
music and nail-biting tension can work.
As an advisory warning though,
commercially speaking, Bad Times at the
El Royale is not for everyone. Its segmented appeal can be off-putting to
some people. Calm and methodical with its pacing, it is the slowest of slow
burns. It takes its time to explore each of its characters’ arcs. And so, the film often doesn’t have a consistent
main character to latch onto and, while that may be refreshing, it can
sometimes work against the narrative.
There is no denying that the film has
some genuine character moments spread throughout, designed to make the audience
connect with them on a human level. At the same time, there’s so much character
shifts happening in between, making virtually every character here
untrustworthy. The characters’ general untrustworthiness amounts to a rather
muted emotional impact. Bad Times
requires thought, but at times too much thought for its own good. Unfortunately,
the film’s more dramatic moments don’t always reach the emotional heights it
aspires to, and instead, draws a perverse reaction that’s more in line with “Is
he/she telling the truth? Is he/she lying? I don’t trust him/her”.
Another issue with Bad Times at the El Royale is its occasionally excessive use of
flashbacks. On the one hand, the film’s characters would not be as fully
realized without the flashback sequences, but on the other, it can go a stretch
too far in some scenes. Often, certain characters are given extended flashback
sequences that come off as over-explaining. Sure, here, Goddard is simply trying to provide a much clearer context to the
character arc, like who the characters were, how it makes them who they are
today, why they are there. There are some moments in the flashbacks that ultimately
makes sense of the characters’ actions in the present time, but there are also others
that seem like extra information that doesn’t do much to the story.
And also, there are certain moments
where the character flashbacks just feel misplaced, especially during the
film’s more tense sequences. It is by no means saying that the scenes aren’t
necessary, but the problem is it comes at the wrong time where the level of
tension is just reaching its crescendo. So often, the flashbacks diffuse the tension.
Minor gripes aside, Bad Times’ script-to-screen translation would not have happened
without its all-star cast. Jeff Bridges
gets top billing in this film, and he is a riveting presence as one of the most
morally-ambiguous priest in history. His character is like a jumping flea, one
who can become a warm, caring grandfatherly figure at one turn, and all of a
sudden, a master manipulator at another turn, and he’s so believable in both
parts. It’s almost impossible to tell whether the persona he’s channeling
onscreen is a lie or not, which is a testament to Bridges’ acting.
Cailee
Spaeny
also stars here in her second feature film after Pacific Rim Uprising (2018). Spaeny
was quite easily the bright spot in the subpar Pacific Rim sequel, but she showcases that she has got deeper
range in a much better quality film. Her character is set up in the beginning
as the typical damsels-in-distress, but as the plot progresses, she has this
sort of dark charm that sets her apart from the other damsels. Safe to say, Spaeny disappears into this character,
through her bodily swagger and unsettling line delivery.
Chris
Hemsworth
takes a welcoming detour from playing macho hero for one of his most
against-type roles in his career. He plays a character described as “a charismatic cult
leader”, and his performance is nothing short of charismatic. He sells this
inviting aspect of the character, that kind of person one can’t say no to.
After all, how can one say no to Chris
Hemsworth, who coasts through this entire film with an unbuttoned shirt and
exposed six packs? Still, being a cult leader, the character’s got an air of
lunacy and radicalism about him that Hemsworth
conveys in a very fun, yet still reasonably human way. If there’s any qualms, he’s not in the film
that much.
However, the stand out here is newcomer Cynthia Erivo. She plays an aspiring
singer, a character that otherwise would have been relegated to being a side
character in other mystery films. Erivo
is the only actress who can make a side character such an interesting,
root-worthy character through her simple, everyman performance. It helps that
the screenplay gives her a larger role in the story. She’s the closest the film
has to both a main character and an audience character, which is a wise
decision in Goddard’s part. In a
film surrounded by shady characters, her character is undoubtedly the more
innocent. There’s certainly deceitful side in the character, which Erivo touches on subtly, but her life
struggles and reactions when thrown in such situation are by far the most
relatable. A lot of the tense and badass moments come when she is at the center
of it, whether in a fit of panic or a fierce showing of female empowerment.
CONCLUSION:
Bad
Times at the El Royale is a clever, unique deconstruction of the murder
mystery and film noir tropes as well as a compelling exploration on the duality
of man and redemption that is further elevated by the stylish production design
and exceptional cast performances (particularly Cynthia Erivo). On the contrary to its title, this is indeed a good
time at the theaters.
Score: 8/10
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