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Each "room" (that is to say every guest and staff member) at El Royale receives its own dedicated segment of the film, supplemented by a Tarantino-esque title card. Like Tarantino, Goddard loves to scramble chronologies, each new story shedding light on the previous ones. The film El Royale the most talked about is the extremely imperfect recent effort of Tarantino, The Hateful Eight, a post-civil war western that threw eight strangers into an isolated cabin and bounced them against each other. El Royale does not have the wrong sequence that this film had, but it is also facing the death of the American dream, but in a more melancholy way.
Read: "The cabin in the woods" unpacks the slasher film
Who are the occupants of El Royale? There is Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a marble-mouthed priest with a spotted memory who seems to want to rent a particular room. Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo) is an aspiring singer looking for a practice space before a crucial concert. Laramie Sullivan (Jon Hamm) is a Louisiana accent vacuum cleaner who could be described as "Foghorn Leghorn" – adjacent. Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson) is a stranger to the cowboy boot who has a bad attitude and a mysterious sister (Cailee Spaeny).
Everyone has a sinister story to tell, and this before the arrival of Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth), a charismatic cult leader, often shirtless, who enters the action late in the game. At El Royale, no one is telling the truth, but it is quickly obvious that Darlene is the hero of Goddard's movie. She gave two decisive scenes, one at the beginning of the film, centered on Erivo who passionately sang a song while all sorts of exciting activities were taking place around her. Erivo, winner of the Tony Award, is a great actress, an even better singer and the main reason to see this movie.
But there are many other intriguing elements at play. Goddard furiously mixes the sins of the Vietnam War, the twisted legacies of the Kennedy and Nixon administrations, the impending specter of drug addiction, and the dark side of the freedom movement. . Some feel seamless, and some seem waxed; one of the best characters leaves too fast, while the less interesting dominates for an hour.
Nevertheless, I must applaud Goddard's ambition even when it exceeds its goals. Yes, Bad times at the El Royale is inflated and might have worked better in neo-black. But it is rare for a genre film to feel as fast and inventive; In reality, the Hut in the woods is one of the most recent examples that come to my mind. It's a story where the many conspiracy machinations are at the service of larger thematic points. There may be too much happening, but as the final act turns into carnage, Goddard at least tries to say something.
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