LIVING IT UP AT THE HOTEL TARANTINO
WRITER-DIRECTOR Drew Goddard rather flaunts his admiration for Quentin Tarantino in this violent but stylish thriller, set in the late Sixties.
even the title, one assumes, is a cheeky homage to the classic ‘cheeseburger’ conversation between John Travolta’s Vincent and Samuel l. Jackson as Jules in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
The el Royale here is a seedy hotel, bang on the state line between California and Nevada.
One stormy night — and here Goddard might have been thinking more of Tarantino’s The Hateful eight — a disparate bunch of strangers check in, all with very different secrets and agendas.
It’s impossible to tell you too much about them without giving the game away, but it’s certainly a juicy cast, with Jeff Bridges on top form as a Catholic priest, Jon Hamm as a travelling salesman, and Dakota Johnson as a defiant young woman with attitude.
Towards the end, Chris Hemsworth joins the fray as a Charles Manson-type character.
But stealing scenes from all these betterknown names is British actress and singer Cynthia erivo, who coincidentally also popped up this week in the london Film Festival’s opener, Widows. At two hours and 20 minutes, Bad Times At The el Royale might also give you a bladder-testing time in el stalls, but there’s a cracking soul and R&B soundtrack by way of compensation — most of it provided by erivo’s character, a Motowntype singer down on her luck.
The film’s other major character is the hotel’s eager-to-please manager, indeed only member of staff, played by lewis Pullman. like just about everyone else he has something to hide, and for quite a while it feels as if the film, too, is hiding something from us.
That can get frustrating; why invest your interest in a picture with so many concealed twists and turns? But Goddard begins to show his hand with the help of some slick, Pulp Fiction- style flashbacks and narrative ellipses.
Ultimately, I felt as though I’d had rather a good time at el picturehouse.