When I saw the first trailer for Bad Times at the El Royale, I though “Ok, what’s it supposed to be about?”. Then when I saw the second trailer I thought “Looks interesting. But what’s it supposed to be about?”. This past weekend I saw the movie and realized the trailers were just what they needed to be because, well, you can’t really show much of the plot without giving a lot away. 

At its core, the movie is a crime thriller, but obviously that doesn’t tell you much. It’s set not long after the Vietnam War and takes place at the El Royale Hotel, with flashbacks in other locations to provide backstory for the characters. And characters are what this movie is all about – the story is character driven and each one is well developed. But no one is necessarily who you think they are, which is made obvious right from the beginning.

They did a good job of creating a noir atmosphere for the film, helped not only by setting of place and time, but with the music as well. In that way, El Royale has a Tarantino feel. It also feels like one of his films in the way the story is told. Though it’s not out of sequential order, many events are replayed from the points of view of different characters, so you can piece together what’s really going on.

El Royale is a long, slow movie but in a good way – definitely what could be called a slow burn. Though not perfect, it tells a rather satisfying story with little twists along the way that are often surprising. And the cast does a great job giving the characters life and giving viewers reason to love or hate each of them. It’s a good piece of storytelling and movie making, and I’m really glad the trailers didn’t give any of it away.