The Value of "Stars" of Any Recognition

(aka ecarle)

I liked a lot of things about "Bad Times at the El Royale"

ONE: The use of 1950s/1960s history,

TWO: the setting (a hotel on the border of Nevada and California at Lake Tahoe, which sits in both states -- in real life the "Cal Neva Lodge" had this distinction -- you could swim from California to Nevada in their swimming pool.)

THREE: The rather creepy set up at the hotel/motel in question. Psycho and the Bates Motel cast a long shadow, and it reaches this movie here. Norman's peephole in Psycho becomes something wholly other here.

FOUR: The color photography and its mix of the wooded browns and greens of the Tahoe area and the gold of the fancy hotel that has seen better days. The rainstorm shots are impressively atmospheric, too(and, again, reminiscent of Psycho)

But at the end of the day, I think what drew me in was...the cast.

It is a mark of "how Hollywood works" that various actors make their mark in various ways and create a warm feeling in us -- "I KNOW that guy or gal -- I REMEMBER them from something else. I look forward to seeing them here."

In El Royale, those four would be:

Jeff Bridges: The longest lived, career wise, looking for all the world here like The Dude grown old -- same beard, same long hair, same amiable manner...but with more wrinkles and a much more fragile voice(alas, Bridges revealed a cancer diagnosis within a couple of years of this movie; thankfully he seems to have beaten it.) Bridges never quite reached superstardom, but he goes back a LONG way(at least to The Last Picture Show in 1971) and he's most welcome here.

Jon Hamm: Hamm rather "came out of nowhere"(a few movie and TV roles) to achieve a kind of intellectual stardom on Mad Men as Don Draper, the 1960's ad man who was equal parts handsome, confident, damaged, and scared(of his secret past.) Mad Men wasn't a giant broadcast hit, but it was well reviewed and was seen in Hollywood where it counted and Hamm was handed a career in movies(a litle) and TV(a lot)...with a side gig in comedy that Hamm seems to favor these days -- he's the real handsome guy who's really weird, or dumb, or both. He has a serious role in this film, but he plays to his comedic side as much as he references Draper. And this movie is mainly set in the late 60's so Don Draper looks right at home.

Dakota Johnson. OK, so she's a nepo baby -- daddy was pretty/handsome Don Johnson and mommy was pretty/dangerous Melanie Griffith. She doesn't much look like either of them but she is certainly beautiful and in a distinctive way: with a mousy sex appeal ("the librarian who puts out") that was exploited, of course, in the very sexual "50 Shades" movies. Will she last as a star? Who knows? But she's got the looks and sexual draw of one. For me, as a male watching this movie, she was eye candy and interesting as well(with some of her mother's danger.)

Chris Hemsworth: He's one of those Marvel movie stars(Thor) which makes him the most financially successful of the cast(other than Bridges) and also -- as with all Marvel leads -- the most in need of proving himself in some other way. Here he does so as "Charles Manson with Thor's body" -- a truly scary combination. (He's also channeling Brad Pitt in his "greasy hillbilly psycho mode" from 1993's Kalifornia -- when Pitt was willing to play really EVIL.)

Those four "stars" are enough to fill the poster for this movie with recognition, and there are other interesting people in the film.

In fact, one of those other people seems to have the real lead of the picture: Cynthia Erivo, who was unknown to me when I saw this film, but seems to have a solid resume with two Oscar nominations for one movie: "Harriet"(2019)..one nom for acting, one for music.

So make that five stars of recognition.

And finally: Lewis Pullman is perhaps TOO good(and thus irritating) as the over-hyper Nervous Nellie of the hotel's desk man (who reveals his own powerful secret at the end) but look close at that face, and unlike with Dakota Johnson , you can CLEARLY see the face of HIS famous parent: BILL Pullman.

So make that six stars of recognition.

There is also the interesting character guy with the deep voice -- Nick Offerman of Parks and Recreation -- used so sparingly that one thirsts for him to have gotten to do more, though he does get the pre-credits opening scene all to himself.

So make that seven.

The movie starts with a nice mysterious premise and then sort of collapses into a garden variety hostage thriller at the end, but it satisfies well enough.

And a great deal of the reason that it DOES satisfy well enough is...the value of the actors cast in it. Stars of recognition: The Dude, Don Draper, Ms. Fifty Shade, Thor, Ron Swanson, and Harriett, among others.