Plot: Two backpacking Canadians (Julia Garner & Jessica Henwick) find themselves low on cash and work as bartenders in a small pup in a remote mining town in Australia.
Review: Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel is exceptional for about ninety percent of its running time. Beautifully shot at an abandoned bar in Yatina, South Australia, a town that consists of only twenty-nine people, the movie is a thoroughly compelling look at the culture of booze, brawling, and misogyny in remote Australia and what happens when two regular, North American girls are dropped right in the middle of it. But, the finale gets a little too close to straight-ahead thriller territory, ending what had up to then been a compelling drama about menace and the constant threat of violence on a somewhat false note. It starts like Wake in Fright but ends like Straw Dogs, and the switch-up doesn’t work.
Review: Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel is exceptional for about ninety percent of its running time. Beautifully shot at an abandoned bar in Yatina, South Australia, a town that consists of only twenty-nine people, the movie is a thoroughly compelling look at the culture of booze, brawling, and misogyny in remote Australia and what happens when two regular, North American girls are dropped right in the middle of it. But, the finale gets a little too close to straight-ahead thriller territory, ending what had up to then been a compelling drama about menace and the constant threat of violence on a somewhat false note. It starts like Wake in Fright but ends like Straw Dogs, and the switch-up doesn’t work.
- 9/8/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
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