Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

A Movie a day in the Month of May
Day 5 pick

I recorded this a few months ago as I remembered having a big ‘will I, won’t I’ about seeing this in cinema. In the end, of course, I didn’t so I was all too ready to finally check out what I had missed.

Very briefly, the movie is about a mysterious hotel that borders Nevada and California, and one night where four strangers check-in. Naturally, each has their own reasons for staying at the eerie hotel with the skittish hotel manager.

The best way I can think to describe this movie is that it was like reaching with your hand down a rabbit hole, feeling something furry but knowing it wasn’t a rabbit.

The slow exposure of what each character was hiding and the perception of that based on who’s eyes it was being seen through is what kept the pacing and intrigue of the film.

With a lightly complex storyline, I think sectioning the movie into chapters the way it did, really allowed us to analyse each puzzle piece one at a time whilst slowly forming the picture in our minds, and knowing at a point, which piece would come next. There was also a lot of subtext, hints to what was going on in the real world and who former occupants of the hotel were, that you really had to be paying attention not to miss it.

Really enjoyed Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo and Lewis Pullman’s characters.

I did think the cult aspect of the movie was a bit of a cop-out. I would have preferred if the movie went another way (maybe something to do with management?) mostly because it was isolated. It fixed a problem it created on its own, and seemed to act as a big distraction for the audience to the real questions they had… Who is management?

Funnily enough, my first instinct was to rate this movie 2.5/5. But after a few hours had past and I found myself still discussing the layers this movie had when it came to rating it ended up getting a 3.5 from me.

A surprising movie that borders on thriller, mystery and drama, and I was all the way here for it.

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