by Robert Bouffard, Editor
Writer/director Kitty Green’s 2020 film, The Assistant, is one of the more quietly devastating movies I’ve seen in recent years. It follows Julia Garner’s Jane, the titular assistant to a Harvey Weinstein-like figure. It’s slow, somewhat nontraditional, methodically paced, and quiet. So it’s quite a surprise that Green’s followup, The Royal Hotel, also starring Garner, is loud and straightforward.
Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are 20-something American backpackers in Australia who run out of money. To bump their bank accounts back up, they take a job as bartenders at the titular Royal Hotel in a more secluded part of the country. They’re warned by the woman who gets them the job that it’s a mining area with a heavy male population, and that they need to be ready for what that entails. But still in need of money, and wanting to continue their time of being free and having new experiences, they take the job.
Things start off rough for them — they’re picked up by Carol (Ursula Yovich), an employee at the hotel, but she’s standoffish and curt. Billy (Hugo Weaving), meanwhile, the owner of the hotel, is a more unsavory figure who, as they find out, takes a long time to pay the people who give him goods or services. Even worse, the patrons of the bar are rowdy and ready to pounce at the young, attractive, seemingly adventurous women.
The men, including Billy, whose drinking habits only intensify as the film goes on, range from Matty’s (Toby Wallace) outward appearance of agreeableness, to Teeth’s (James Frecheville) seeming kindness, to Dolly’s (Daniel Henshall) out-and-out hostility. The Royal Hotel is very much a feminist piece that takes the time for nuance.
As the film progresses, what begins as thinly veiled moves on to being clear: These two women are not safe. Green (and her co-writer Oscar Redding) bring an intensity to the screen that culminates more loudly that you might expect given the buildup. Garner, who I’m only familiar with from The Assistant, is solid — she seems more well-suited to the smaller, quieter tone. Henwick, who’s already found herself in The Matrix: Resurrections and Glass Onion, is easily the standout. Her style of acting feels much more at home amidst the noise and fervor of The Royal Hotel.
Green is definitely one to keep an eye on — she’s excelled in two completely different kinds of movies, while not abandoning her voice. The Royal Hotel is as gripping a commentary on masculinity as we’ll see this year.
Rating: High Side of Liked It
The Royal Hotel is currently playing in theaters
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