Bad Times at the El Royale

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) takes place over one night in a hotel built directly on a state line. A red line runs through the middle of the El Royale: California on one side, Nevada on the other. It was famous once and is now empty. One night four strangers arrive: a priest, a singer, a salesman and a hippie woman. All four are lying. The film is divided into chapters and each one goes into a person's room; the same night is told four times through different eyes. What you saw in one room takes on an entirely different meaning in another chapter. The hotel itself holds a secret: there is an observation passage behind the corridors and the rooms are watched through one way mirrors. The idea of the place comes from somewhere that really exists, a resort on the California and Nevada border, built directly across the line and famous in the sixties. Drew Goddard wrote and directed. He had made The Cabin in the Woods and is again taking a genre structure apart. The scenes where Cynthia Erivo sings are the best in it; the songs are used as cover while something else happens behind them. Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson and Chris Hemsworth are in the cast. Hemsworth is a long way from his usual roles. It lost money. It runs 141 minutes. Good for: mystery, single location films, and the late sixties. Less good for: it is long, some threads go nowhere, and the violence is sudden.