Author: Shari K. Green

You absolutely must get online and get your reservations for the El Royale tonight! This Tarantino style noir or ‘black’ film has dustings of Hitchcock and early Hollywood capers and mysteries. Don’t waste another moment reading about it. Just go. The trailer does a spectacular job of keeping certain plotlines a secret which is rare these days so if you were already interested by watching them, you haven’t seen anything yet.
The opening of the film declares why a certain character is at the hotel and what he’s searching for. ‘Bad Times at the El Royale,’ like similar films before it, allows us to get to know each of her other characters one by one. Little is revealed about them but as more people and circumstances crop up, with the use of flashbacks, you’re investigating the characters yourselves and learning more. Often, you’ll be surprised at what you see. A little warning to those who are faint of heart, there are several jump-scares that will leave you unsettled and anxious for what’s to come during the rest of the film. This is something I liked about Drew Goddard’s film ‘The Cabin in the Woods,’ too. He knows how to keep you sitting on the edge of your seat and he likes it.

The film’s two hours and 21 minutes are rather long but for the most part, the cast makes each minute count. And don’t ask me to pick who, out of this magnificent assembly of actors, is best. They were all outstanding! Okay, fine. If you’re going to twist my arm, I have to admit that I couldn’t take my eyes off Jeff Bridges. The man is unbelievable in this role. But I digress. Let’s get back to the length of the movie. Though a well-orchestrated film otherwise, where Goddard could have shaved off some time would have been by not having the characters discover things the audience has already seen through the eyes of several others before. That said, I’d see it again in a heartbeat. Let me tell you some about what to expect from your bi-state stay in the El Royale. The hotel sits on both Nevada and California and is split in half by a red line painted down the middle of the lobby. The hotel has hosted many performers of the stage and screen where gambling is allowed only on the Nevada side, obviously, but plenty of boozing and canoodling have happened on both. With the band of misfits joining us now, it certainly hasn’t been and still isn’t a virtuous place to stay. The hotel is very much a central figure of the film. It reveals and has as much personality as any of the others do.

Through Goddard’s clever and inventive script and exceedingly brilliant and vivid imagination, you get involved in their stories and grow to either love or hate them. The bellboy named Miles (played by Bill Pullman’s son) Lewis, is perhaps the most compelling by movies end, something not expected upon first meeting him. I don’t really want to introduce you to them or reveal too much so I’ll not be saying much more. You need to be sitting in the theatre watching, not reading about, why you need to see this. You’ll be sucked in right away with a very impressive and striking opening. The thrills, the wit, and the outlandish situations along with the players and the music that accompanies them will take you voluntarily to the end of your stay.

‘First Man’ focuses on the beginnings of Nasa and invests most of its two hours and twenty minutes to Neil Armstrong, the first man to ever set foot on the moon. It’s captured beautifully with an incredibly exciting screenplay by Josh Singer, who wrote ‘The Post,’ ‘Spotlight’ and twenty-six episodes of ‘The West Wing,’ that’s filled with motivation, trepidation, elation and plenty of heartaches.
If you want to feel what Neil Armstrong felt as he flew his jet across the sky and if you want to experience the inside of a space capsule with him, as well, see this movie at the theatre but if you can, get to an IMAX theatre quickly for an enhanced adventure into space.

Director Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash), obviously no novice when it comes to music and tone, had a sound department of thirty people working overtime for this one! The metal of the rocket the astronauts are jammed into before it takes off and after speaks to them. It moans and groans, shrieks and creaks, articulating its disapproval of what is being asked of it, setting your nerves on edge before you’re anywhere near the moon. Chazelle manages to make us see and feel the vibrations and each bump, jolt, quiver and jerk they are going through as they train for their mission and as they’re launched into orbit. Uncertainty is a big part of the film which is puzzling because we all know how it turns out but that’s how beautifully structured the film is and how strong the characters are. It’s so believable that even YOU aren’t sure of what’s next for them.

Though Armstrong and other astronauts were in happy marriages, Chazelle was able to catch and target in on their lives at home during the 1960’s with the Apollo missions going on. As they watched friends burn up or blow up, they tried not to show it but were a bundle of nerves inside. Armstrong kept himself at a safe distance from his wife Janet, played quite skillfully by Claire Foy. They lose a child, Karen, which Neil never seems to recover but as they continue to have more children, he pulls away emotionally, saving it for the missions, and she remains strong for their family. She understood he had to direct his attention on surviving but wasn’t about to let him kill what they had. The scene between the two of them toward the end of the film strengthens an already powerful film and cements this as one of the best movies of the year. That said, however, it’s no ‘Whiplash,’ which is a more determined Chazelle film, but this is still intense and a must-see this weekend. Don’t wait to watch it at home. The exceptional photography and superb score deserve to be seen and heard properly.