journal features

movie review - Bad Times at the El Royale

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2019.08.11

Where to start. This is a crime-of-opportunity movie: not a caper flick, where everyone is in on a heist; and not something like a hostage situation where unwitting parties are put through an ordeal. It's more like a situation is developing and virtually everyone involved is someone ready to participate at the drop of a hat. The scene is a motel in the 1970s, the players include a variety of colorful desperadoes and grifters, and the tone is winkingly lethal.

I enjoyed the clever plot and the enraging situation created by the hotel's designers and operators. I liked the characters, I found their actions clever and reasonable (for the situation) and I liked the contained nature of the set. I'd happily watch this again.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force