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In Theaters Now
- 2023
- R
- 1 h 31 m
- 2023
- R
- 1 h 31 m
Summary Americans Hanna and Liv are best friends backpacking in Australia. After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called ’The Royal Hotel’ in a remote Outback mining town. Bar owner Billy and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Dow...
Directed By: Kitty Green
Written By: Oscar Redding, Kitty Green
In Theaters Now
- 2023
- R
- 1 h 31 m
- 2023
- R
- 1 h 31 m
The Royal Hotel
77
4.6
Where to Watch
Summary Americans Hanna and Liv are best friends backpacking in Australia. After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called ’The Royal Hotel’ in a remote Outback mining town. Bar owner Billy and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Dow...
Directed By: Kitty Green
Written By: Oscar Redding, Kitty Green
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 35 Critic Reviews
77
80% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
20% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 35 Critic Reviews
77
80% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
20% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
A psychological thriller, it’s all the more tense for Green’s smart understatement of the genre elements.
Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick turn in layered, nuanced performances, while the male actors playing varying degrees of scumbag are suitably and effectively nauseating and intimidating. The Royal Hotel is a little like the Hotel California in that you can check out any time you’d like, but on some level, you can never really leave.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 User Ratings
4.6
28% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
33% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
39% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 18 User Ratings
4.6
28% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
33% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
39% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
This movie came out of nowhere, and I'm so glad I took a chance and watched it. The 2 Americans from Canada are very believable as best friends looking to see the world. It's too bad that they run out of money, and have to take a job in the nastiest bar stuck out in the middle of the boondocks of the Australian outback. And that's where things start to go south for our heroine's. They take as much abuse as they possibly can, and then..look out. Great fun, great acting and then enoughs, enough from the local bullies. Check it out.
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I liked it, but only within the range that I could say is merely basic. In my perspective, I managed to get the gist of the story, though the development unfolds at such a leisurely pace that when the situation finally explodes, it feels not only rushed, but **** Royal Hotel is basically enticing you to play along to find out if there's a payoff at the end that will reward your time and attention. And yes, there is, but to achieve that with impact, you need more than just inducing the viewer into the notion of how long the protagonists will endure all that toxic masculinity, before getting to the point you're looking for, which surprise, surprise, involves the predictable but contained violence. It earns the extra point because at least I thought it was a decent film, though ultimately, the experience is utterly short-lived.
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A slight but mightily effective adrenaline rush of a movie, with powerful performances all round and precise direction from Kitty Green. Watch it on the big screen and allow it to properly get your heart pounding and palms sweating.
Green deals in the unexplicit, and those questions are the engine of the film.
Green has a talent for depicting the way women constantly recalibrate their behavior when moving through male spaces, trying to figure out how to attract enough attention but not too much, to come across as pleasant without inviting unwanted intimacies.
The sustained twitchy energy of the script amplifies the jangling nerves of Hanna’s fight-or-flight dilemma. But Liv’s weak-mindedness can feel implausible and the grandstanding denouement feels jarring and unearned.
Written and directed with muscle and grit by Kitty Green, The Royal Hotel is loaded with grim ambiance, and there is even some suspense, mainly while the viewer waits to see if anything will ever happen.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick play American backpackers who end up bartending in a remote mining town in the Australian Outback. The unruly crowd that inhabits the saloon presents them with conflicts and challenges. There's a sense of foreboding that things might go horribly wrong at any second. Unfortunately, this never happens. The tension stops mounting pretty early on and any potential for shocks never materializes. The actors are all fine, but this story never lives up to the promise of the potential tragedy that could have made this a compelling or at least an interesting film.
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Production Company
See-Saw Films,
Fulcrum Media Finance,
Scarlett Pictures
Release Date Oct 6, 2023
Duration 1 h 31 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline A fun adventure is all they wanted
Awards
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards
• 6 Nominations
San Sebastián International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Cinéfest Sudbury
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
