The Royal Hotel

If you agree with the messaging it's probably going to hit with you, but it sacrifices nuance and characterization to provide a simplistic view of male threat/female fear. Girls good, guys bad. Cynical and harmful tripe. Garner and Henwick try. Build-up that occasionally feels tense but leads to a pathetic, uninspired payoff. Green, who gave us a visually enthralling movie with The Assistant, only showed glimpses of her directorial prowess. Just a disappointing movie all around.

(STRAW DINGOES)

I mostly liked this. At times a bit dumb, but effective enough. No big complaints about anything, but at the same time it's not particularly excellent in any area as well. Just a neat film that probably shows what it is to be a woman surrounded by sexist drunks.

Accomplished well being a more reality-based thriller. Delve into comment sections of this movie and you'll find men disappointed this movie didn't escalate into absurdity. Either because they didn't realize the subtle horror of Hanna and Liv, or because they wanted absurdity to make it feel a bit less personal. Hanna and Liv were both played well for the majority of the movie, but Liv became a crutch to move the plot towards the end, unfortunately.

I like the two leads so finally sat down and gave this one a go. A true misogynist's dream awaits those who enter. About what you'd expect from a couple of women on a backpacking trip that try to make some quick cash by travelling out to remote Australia for the only job available tending bar and living above it in an area with population 30 and they hang at the bar almost 24/7. The acting was fine I suppose, but there really isn't much that happens. Dislikable characters abound. 5.4

There’s a lot of things I didn’t like about this movie, but it becomes something more than the sum of its parts in the second half, turning away from most of the expected conflicts to this weird little character study. The anticlimax ending feels strangely appropriate. “Oh you thought this was about the plot?”

Cool story, a bit of a thriller.

a misandrist's undeveloped wet dream

This film is interesting for most of the way. The climax of the film is a little disappointing. The two leads do a good job playing their roles. Overall I would recommend this film.

There's a tendency to take any movie that's basically just a bunch of people trapped together without much driving plot a "character study". Y'know, "they are forced to show who they really are." That's not Royal Hotel. If anything, "character" here is a result of the situation you're in; we're social animals and we want to fit in. And if you don't fit in, you make yourself fit in. And if you can't, for instance because you're the person everyone else turns on, then, well, you're in trouble.

Watch this film if you want to know what it's like to be a woman.

Just like her first film, The Assistant, Kitty Green deals with male domination with uncanniness in The Royal Hotel. Centering on two young women in a predominantly male town, the story touches directly on issues of abuse, manipulation, and victim blaming. Even though it moves slowly, it is effective.

I didn't see much in particular and nuance to make this film special, it's not a compelling story but more like sequences of mildly tense scenes of the world through two young females. no plot, undeveloped characters, flat tension. no payoff. not sure why it got made and this long.

Accurately portrays the natural female tendency to excuse bad male behavior and a woman’s reluctance to trust her own instincts. This film will resonate with most women in one way or another, as it certainly did with me.

Just like The Assistent, a smart outing by Kitty Green with a strong sensitivity for ambigious and confusing social undercurrents and motivations. I liked that the (masculine) threat in this film never takes the form of conventional tropes and in that toys with our expectations. The setting of an Outback Gomorra seems completely authentic and the drunk mayhem is as wild and funny as it is believable. Reminded me of Tyrel but it's even more excessive. This director definitely knows what's up

Kitty Green is now the go-to director when it comes to male chauvinism and dominance. She doesn’t treat these themes politically, but situationally, and outlines her characters quickly and precisely. The unease is felt throughout, because you expect all this testosterone with nowhere to go to go to dangerous and dark places instead. The welcome surprise is that it’s more realistic than our movie expectations. People just crash into each other, get hurt, and go their way. The end is unfortunate.

More obvious than I expected or hoped. The nightmare of every Responsible Friend.

As much a character study as a thriller. Garner is really great, and Henwick is good, even though she's saddled with a character that's a lot harder to pin down ... sometimes coming off as the voice of reason, but sometimes being the world's worst friend. Hugo Weaving is almost unrecognizable as the pub's owner, veering from coarse, but amiable Aussie charm to violent, drunken menace.

An extremely impressively tense and well-written depiction of male threat in various forms, with an excellent cast and fantastic central location. Kitty Green is such a talent!!!