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and??
Aaaand I liked it a lot. I don't think it's quite the home run that flies so high to knock an orbiting satellite that Cabin in the Woods was and continues to be for me as I find myself re-watching more than most modern movies, but a movie as unique and rare as that is perhaps an unfair comparison, though it being Goddard's followup and the fact that there are certainly undeniable echoes between the two works, they almost have to be sat side by side.
From the very opening scenes, I knew he was stylistically doing something very much my speed: Long unbroken takes, tableau shots as wide as the rooms they're in, editing cleverly timed to its music choices, all realized with warm beamingly saturated 35mm frames. The well-worn idea of a bunch of people finding their way to a location where no one is quite who they seem to be is also automatically juicy enough to me, especially with the production design and cast they put together to realize it, but even when the narrative ostensibly hits all the beats you might assume it will, Goddard continually tucks in layers of subversion and meta whispering to not have you entirely comfortable about assuming what he's ultimately up to. Even when it ends you're left wondering if it really was as straightforward as it seemed, as certain elements continue to linger and tantalize.
Cynthia Erivo will be the biggest discovery here for most (and it's odd because Widows is actually the first film she ever made, and I'm in the rare position of having gotten to see her in that first through TIFF, but she only shot Bad Times earlier this year and it's getting released before McQueen's mid-2017-shot film) as she's just such a vibrant, strong, exciting presence on screen, and the fact that a significant piece of her performance is her needing to perform songs acapella to help carry entire sequences alongside the tension of their plotting they're so perfectly delivered. They're multifaceted performances through those songs that in ways that play beautifully with what the film is juggling dramatically in the moment, instead of simply taking time to just sit back for a song. The scenes are great, the songs are great, and so much of that is because she's great. [] This is also a movie very reliant on recognizable (and literally, visually puncuated) needle drops, and it takes a lot for a movie know how to acknowledge them in just the right way and employ them compelling when there's this many of them. Michael Giacchino does an original score for it, but the jukebox is the more consistent orchestra, both in its frequency and emotional dictating of each scene it's present. But the whole cast is absolutely here to play in the best ways too. The best thing I can say is that there are some of them I wish I could have seen way more of, or if this was a TV limited series, that we could've gotten entire episodes just focused on certain characters' journeys before their arrival at the El Royale. (In this way, Goddard's time of Lost seems to show through in his unusual but very character-focused structuring and his affinity for a very specific sort of function for flashbacks.) Hemsworth is obviously going for it the most, and his role is very much the devilish engine of change for the story (who obviously sees himself more of a Christ figure, bringing all the conscious religious allegories and dichotomies with him), but I have to wonder if he was a different actor at a different moment in his career, and if this was a film that didn't need to sell him as a draw, if they'd have had him kept a secret considering how the film employs him (which is to say, late into the proceedings).
But I will say is that if you haven't seen the possibly-too-spoilery trailers but enough of its cast and crew, premise, and what I've described is enough for you to be intrigued, then just go ahead and see it and avoid the trailers and TV spots as much as possible. And despite its storytelling bluntness and classic elements, it still manages to feel like a remarkably obtuse film for a studio to make in 2018, and I'm absolutely for it. If Goddard hadn't gotten an Oscar nomination for The Martian's script and been developing X-Force (which I suppose may still happen) for the very studio who greenlit this, I don't really see how this 140-minute, deliberately leisurely paced and not exactly crowdpleasing weird genre blend would've existed, but I'm definitely happy it does, even if it wasn't always as exceedingly strong as I hoped it could've been considering the ingredients it contains.
I think I loved just enough of it to be okay with the percentage of it that I don't think I did. And I think aspects of both sides of those are likely going to be fun to discuss.
If Elmore Leonard had written The Hateful Eight...
Tarantino > Elmore Leonard
Bad Times at the El Royale > The Hateful Eight
Man, I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did. The cinematography is good, the score is good, the soundtrack is excellent, and the performances are great, but the narrative had the opportunity to be a lot more fun and faster-paced, and it thinks it has a message when the narrative is uneven and aimless in its non-linear structure. Maybe there was something about it that I just didn't get, but overall, this movie was a big letdown. It gets a mild yay from me, but that's it.
This is a movie that only big movie lovers will semi-like.
It has a first hour that is close to excellent. Interesting characters that are all mysterious, put together in a weird location. Unfortunately, when Goddard lets things go, they almost all take a turn for the worse, and it's too long for its own good. The ending certainly doesn't earn the claps that it wants, and I dare say that some of the reason is the casting of Hemsworth and the Bellhop is just off.
There's a HUGE try here from Goddard to do something Tarantino-like, but Tarantino is much better at casting and pacing.
But that first hour is something I'll casually watch at anytime.
Them Pullman genes are fuckin strong.
This tries for a kind of non-supernatural version of From Dusk Till Dawn, but without most of Tarantino's or Rodriguez's verve. Hell, at one point, I thought it was gonna veer in that direction--and strangely, I think I would have been more satisfied if it did. Its too languorous for its own good, and as good a singer as Erivo is, the narrative hits a bit of a lurch when we stop to admire her voice. Actors are all mostly pretty good. It's a fun little distraction though, I guess.
EDIT: Hemsworth's accent comes and goes.
Barely Yay. Jon Hamm and Chris Hemsworth should definitively have switched roles.
Goddard is able to generate some tense set-pieces, which is not nothing, but it is such a shame that it never ends up going anywhere. Great exterior, nothing under the hood.