Bad Times at the El Royale

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, and Chris Hemsworth
Directed by: Drew Goddard
Screenplay by: Drew Goddard

    At first, this is a film that feels like it's going to be another one of those classic "who done it?" murder mysteries.  The kind where a band of misfits has to figure out together who killed someone in the party.  If you look at the run time of Bad Times (a whopping 2 hrs and 20 minutes), you might think there's no way a murder mystery could last that long on screen.  But you just have to keep watching.  It's not what you think...
    A group of people who don't know each other appear to have all come together at the El Royale hotel; a small, but once glamorous establishment that straddles the border of California and Nevada not far from Lake Tahoe.  They have nothing to do with each other, but all are hiding something.  The vacuum salesman (Jon Hamm) doesn't seem to be exactly who he says he is, with his terrible Southern accent.  The priest (Jeff Bridges), who has early onset Alzheimer's, doesn't seem so priestly.  The hippie (Dakota Johnson) seems way too intense.  The only one who seems even remotely like herself is the singer (Cynthia Erivo).  All of these folks are here for different reasons and are all traveling to different places.  Some of them are on the run.  Some are in the middle of a trip, and others; it's hard to figure out. 
     The story is told in an interesting fashion.  All the characters arrive at the El Royale at roughly the same time.  Multiple cataclysmic events happen around the same time in the film, but not towards the end, like most movies have happen.  Instead, these events happen toward the middle of the movie, and much of the film after that shows how the characters all arrived at the El Royale in the first place.  While these characters all live almost completely separate lives until they all rendezvous at the hotel, they all are caught up in the same situation by the end of the story; an ultimate test of their trust and belief in strangers.  This final act is also quite strange because it seems so totally out of the blue based on the rest of the story up until that point. 
     Bad Times is the kind of film that really requires close viewing, and perhaps multiple viewings to truly understand what's going on.  It is a complex and convoluted story, yet thrilling, exciting, and highly suspenseful throughout. 
   
I give Bad Times at the El Royale a B.

Image Source: The Fanboy Factor (http://fanboyfactor.com/2018/06/bad-times-at-the-el-royale-first-trailer/)