Whoa, pleasant surprise here! The movie delivered a lot more than I was expecting with a title like "Bad Times at the El Royale". Seems like Jeff Bridges can't miss ever since "Crazy Heart", with follow up grizzled, ornery characterizations in "Rooster Cogburn" and "Hell or High Water". He was great here as the dementia challenged old timer bent on reclaiming an old score from ten years prior during a robbery that went South. But he's not alone among a cast that includes relative newcomer Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson and Chris Hemsworth, who provides an additional layer of intensity with an appearance late in the story. Part of my fondness for the film comes from an appreciation for Tarantino-esque story telling with a non-linear chronology, which was very effective here and not too difficult to follow.
What really got my attention in the early going was when Calhoun Appliance salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Hamm) placed a call to J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI..., wait, what? Then it gets weirder and weirder with the El Royale's secret passage containing two way mirrors, listening devices and secret recording equipment. The principal story takes place in the mid to late Sixties, with a very satisfying soundtrack recalling some of the big hits of the era, which nicely redounds to Cynthia Erivo's character, a promising lounge singer attempting to make it big with nearby casino bookings. But as the viewer, you're never quite sure what direction the story is going in until the all but invisible Billy Lee (Hemsworth) shows up in the sixth chapter to turn things upside down.
So with a lot of twists and turns and some unconventional characters, the film turned out to be a pleasant surprise for this viewer, who hadn't heard anything about it until running across the title at my local library. I'd strongly recommend it except for the fact that it won't be appreciated by anyone turned off by chronologically challenged stories with less than savory characters. That would be like getting whacked in the head with a whiskey bottle, which by the way, figures prominently in a particularly jarring scene. One of the many surprises in a film full of them.
What really got my attention in the early going was when Calhoun Appliance salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Hamm) placed a call to J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI..., wait, what? Then it gets weirder and weirder with the El Royale's secret passage containing two way mirrors, listening devices and secret recording equipment. The principal story takes place in the mid to late Sixties, with a very satisfying soundtrack recalling some of the big hits of the era, which nicely redounds to Cynthia Erivo's character, a promising lounge singer attempting to make it big with nearby casino bookings. But as the viewer, you're never quite sure what direction the story is going in until the all but invisible Billy Lee (Hemsworth) shows up in the sixth chapter to turn things upside down.
So with a lot of twists and turns and some unconventional characters, the film turned out to be a pleasant surprise for this viewer, who hadn't heard anything about it until running across the title at my local library. I'd strongly recommend it except for the fact that it won't be appreciated by anyone turned off by chronologically challenged stories with less than savory characters. That would be like getting whacked in the head with a whiskey bottle, which by the way, figures prominently in a particularly jarring scene. One of the many surprises in a film full of them.