Film Review: THE ROYAL HOTEL (2023): Kitty Green’s Powerful New Thriller is a Timely and Provocative Masterpiece

The Royal Hotel Review

The Royal Hotel (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Kitty Green, written by Oscar Redding and Kitty Green and starring Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Herbert Nordrum, Hugo Weaving, Daniel Henshall, James Frecheville, Nic Darrigo, Adam Morgan, Adam MacNeill, Ursula Yovich, Bree Bain, Alex Malone, Bruce R. Carter and Barbara Lowing.

Kitty Green has crafted a cautionary film for our times with the masterfully told thriller, The Royal Hotel. This film revolves around two young “Canadian” women played by Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick. They are friends and seek to get away from their burdensome lives. Little do they know what awaits them when they travel to a desolate Australian town’s bar to work as servers. The Royal Hotel builds suspense like a roller coaster ride that creates genuine tension within the parameters of the story line until it finally lets loose and there’s no turning back.

Liv (Henwick) is having problems with her credit card. She’s trying to buy a drink when we first meet her. Her friend, Hanna (Garner), seems to be the more sensible of the two. They agree to take jobs in the aforementioned middle-of-nowhere Australian pub which is sort of referred to by the film’s title. When they get to Australia, they meet Carol (Ursula Yovich), an older woman who helps run the bar and seems a little suspicious even though she does have some decency in her as the movie progresses.

The owner of the bar is Billy (Hugo Weaving). Billy isn’t playing with a full deck and is not to be trusted. Midway through the movie when we find out he doesn’t want to pay the young ladies, it’s clear that our protagonists are in way over their heads when considering their dire situation. There are several men who frequent the bar and this movie will make you yell at the screen on several occasions to tell our ladies to get the hell out of there. It’s totally easy to sympathize with Hanna but a little harder to understand why Liv is so tolerant of what is clearly abusive behavior that is displayed throughout the movie.

There is a snake at one point in the film that causes fear within the two main characters. A key male character kills it and puts it in a jar. He then puts the jar on the bar to frustrate Hanna even though Liv tries to downplay that he’s actually really taunting her. That male character is Dolly (Daniel Henshall in a brilliant, creepy performance). Dolly obviously has other things in mind than drinking at the bar. He taunts both bartenders and makes them feel low at one point as he stuffs money in their tip jar after acting aggressive and hostile.

Then, there’s a guy named Teeth (James Frecheville) who likes Liv but gets rejected. Teeth takes it so hard that he ends up saying he’s going to walk back home after an interesting series of events. And, he gets banned from the bar for two weeks. But, when Billy is taken away by Carol to get medical treatment after an incident, there are no holds barred. Hanna and Liv are left to fend for themselves. As Liv celebrates her birthday, uncomfortable things begin to happen. The movie grows intense and an axe makes it into the picture. To avoid spoilers, maybe saying more would be giving too much away.

What helps make The Royal Hotel such a great film is the way it is filmed. Visually speaking, there are scenes that cut to the bone and make the viewer feel a certain level of discomfort that is appropriate to help bring the film’s points into view. Shots of men who seem rowdy and unsympathetic added to the presence of a lighter a patron gives Hanna with a half naked lady on it help show that this particular setting is one where there is no understanding of personal boundaries. The men just assume that our girls are ready to do anything just because they are working at a bar. They see them as objects rather than genuine human beings for almost the entire movie.

Julia Garner is absolutely breathtaking in a performance that is certainly among her finest work to date. She’s the voice of reason and Garner masterfully conveys the sense of urgency her character has regarding the men’s behaviors which Liv brushes off with a grain of salt. Henwick is believable as the naive one who gets a wake up call she never asked for as events transpire that are simply frightening and absolutely bone-chilling to watch. Henshall’s Dolly is so scary and genuinely slimy that the character will make you get goosebumps every time he appears on screen.

Kitty Green has crafted a true piece of cinematic genius. The Royal Hotel takes everything that we know and have come to accept about men’s behaviors and turns it all upside down. This movie is an eye opener about the chances people take to try to enhance their lives too. Liv and Hanna were better off before they went to this Australian bar to try to make money which was some sort of plan to enrich their lives. Though the movie doesn’t always explain their true desires for their futures, it deals efficiently with their present lives. Things will certainly change for them by the time the end credits roll.

The Royal Hotel is disturbing and urgent as a piece of film-making. It goes way beyond making a statement about sexual harassment. It goes several steps further and makes us understand why we read the tragic news that we read in the papers every day. It’s a twisted world out there. In some places more than others. In The Royal Hotel, audiences get a glimpse of a run-down watering hole where several dead-end lives go to try to bring others down with them into their self-constructed abyss. This is a movie that will get under your skin and watching it is an uncomfortable but rewarding experience thanks to the tension the film masterfully portrays and the fine performance by the always phenomenal Garner.

Rating: 10/10

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