Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

I was pretty excited to see Bad Times at the El Royale, and it was not only because Chris Hemsworth is half-naked every time he's on screen, but because the promotional material had me intrigued. Unfortunately, my theatre didn't show it so I had to wait for home release. 

The story takes place in a remote hotel on the California-Nevada border, the El Royale, in 1969. One day during the off-season, the concierge and sole employee at the hotel, Miles Miller (Lewis Pullman) welcomes four unique individuals: Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a Catholic priest; Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), a struggling soul singer; Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm) who claims to be a vacuum cleaner salesman; and Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson), a rude woman. They each have their secret and over the course of the night, they will show their true selves.

I'm going to stop right there as going any further into the plot would spoil it for you, in case you haven't seen the film yet. It's not a spoiler though that the plot, although it's quite thin and its twists aren't always as surprising as they should be, is throughout very compelling and interesting as director Drew Goddard —he also wrote the screenplay— makes wonderful use of flashbacks, which are important to enrich the plot, and alternative point of views.

In Bad Time at the El Royale, Goddard took plenty of time to introduce, give depth and develop the characters and it did pay off as the film has interesting, three-dimensional characters you can care about —I ended up rooting against Chris Hemsworth's character, that's how much I cared about some of the others.

The performances are also great. Jeff Bridges gives yet another excellent performance in the role of Father Flynn as he handles the character's oddness and eccentricities very well. Jon Hamm, whome I wish had more screen time, does a great job as the salesman as he brings his charm along with nice comedic timing. Chris Hemsworth gives a charming performance as cult leader Billy Lee. Dakota Johnson is surprisingly good as Emily, especially if you consider she isn't given a lot to do. The standouts, however, are Cynthia Erivo whose singing performance delivers the character's emotions to perfection, and Lewis Pullman who pulls off an apparently dull character beautifully.

20th Century Fox

Goddard was able to build tension and mystery, while also balancing drama and dark comedy. There's a lot of violence but it somewhat feels appropriate. The cinematography is stunning with its lush colours, the production design is superb, and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Overall, it feels like Bad Times at the El Royale is a Tarantino wannabe but, ultimately, I didn't care because the execution is great, and the film is a hell of a fun ride.

Tag (2018)

Something I like to do is go on IMDb and look for movie suggestions --as if having 1,000+ movies on my list wasn't enough. That's how I stumbled across Tag and, convinced it either had Amy Adams or Charlize Theron, I decided to check it out.

The film tells the story of a group of friends, Hogan "Hoagie" Malloy (Ed Helms), Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm), Randy "Chilli" Cilliano (Jake Johnson), Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress) and Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner), who has been playing the same game of tag for 30 years. When Jerry who has never been tagged plans to retire from the game after his upcoming wedding, the four remaining friends team together to finally tag him.

It's probably one of the most idiotic premises ever which is why I'm still trying to process the fact that the film is based on a true story and grown men actually did something this stupid. That said, although pretty thin and predictable, the story is quite engaging and never boring, and delivers a heartwarming message about friendship.

Unfortunately, that message isn't properly developed and the blame is on the characters. They barely have a characterization and development is nowhere to be found. In other words, they are bland, boring and uninteresting. Also, some of the characters are completely useless, specifically Rashida Jones's Cheryl Deakins, a girl Bob and Chilli have a crush on since always, as she is nothing but a (beautiful) distraction, and Annabelle Willis's Rebecca Crosby, the Wall Street Journal journalist who wrote the article about these guys as it feels like the character slows down the film. At least each character gets a decent amount of screen time, even Jerry's soon-to-be wife (Leslie Bob).

Warner Bros. Pictures

The cast is quite strong throughout the film. I'm not sure comedy is Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner's thing, but the chemistry between all the actors is impressive, and the ladies are pretty enjoyable too. Also, they are clearly having which makes us have fun.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much it with the fun. To make its audience laugh, Tag heavily relies on the absurd situations the characters find themselves into, slapstick and violence. It's dumb humour, in other words, the kind of stuff one would expect from an Ed Helms movie, only it doesn't work that well this time around and the result is an occasionally funny film.

Fell In Love with a Girl: KISSING JESSICA STEIN

If Woody Allen in his prime had made a lesbian romantic comedy that avoided the usual Woody neuroses and verbal tics while remaining immensely funny and likable, it would be pretty close to Kissing Jessica Stein�that is, a valentine to love, New York City, and old jazz tunes, only with two girls kissing. Cowritten and produced by its stars, Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, the film was a hit on the indie and festival circuits back in 2001 and remains the perfect antidote for anyone feeling nutrient-deprived by the formulaic slop served up with the likes of Kate Hudson, J-Lo, and Katherine Heigl (whose three names in succession summon up in me a kind of indigestion of the soul).

Juergensen and Westfeldt

But calling Kissing Jessica Stein a lesbian romantic comedy isn't entirely accurate, since both the main characters start out straight and with only a bout of bicuriosity. Westfeldt plays Jessica, a magazine editor and self-described "Jew from Scarsdale" who's a hyper-articulate Diane Keaton/Lisa Kudrow type with standards for men as exacting as her standards for words. When, after a dispiriting series of blind dates, her attention is drawn to a personals ad quoting Rilke (her favorite writer), she finds herself intrigued even though the quoter is a woman. That woman, a free-spirited art gallery director named Helen Cooper (Juergensen), has grown fed up with the hairier sex and wants to try the other side of the fence for a change.
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