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Bad Times at the El Royale

Bad Times at the El Royale

2018

R

Director

Drew Goddard

Runtime

141 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

Synopsis

Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption.

Where to Watch

Diversity & Representation

Overall Score

6.0/10

Fair


Category Breakdown

LGBTQ+ Representation

Limited

The film lacks explicit LGBTQ+ character development or same-sex intimacy. While the ensemble is diverse, non-heteronormative identities are not central to the narrative arc.

Gender Representation

Good

Female characters like Emily and Rose demonstrate significant agency and autonomy. They navigate male-dominated environments without falling into traditional tropes of submissive femininity.

Racial & Ethnic Diversity

Good

A multi-ethnic ensemble challenges the typical homogeneity of 1960s period pieces. The film effectively frames white supremacist ideologies as the primary systemic villain.

Religious & Cultural Diversity

Excellent

The narrative excels by exploring moral relativism and anti-heroes driven by survival. It critiques extremist, hate-based ideologies and the era's traditional authority figures.

Disability Representation

Fair

Representation of visible or invisible disabilities is limited. Psychological distress is present, but it serves the thriller genre rather than exploring specific neurodivergence or chronic illness.

Strengths

  • Strong agency and autonomy for female characters like Emily and Rose.
  • A multi-ethnic ensemble that avoids the typical homogeneity of 1960s settings.
  • Effective critique of white supremacist ideologies through the primary antagonist.
  • Sophisticated use of moral relativism and situational ethics.

Areas for Improvement

  • Lack of explicit LGBTQ+ character development or non-heteronormative identities.
  • Limited exploration of neurodivergence or specific visible and invisible disabilities.
  • Psychological distress is framed more as genre tension than identity exploration.

AI Analysis

Bad Times at the El Royale succeeds in subverting the typical 1960s period-piece mold by utilizing a multi-ethnic ensemble and challenging white-normative baselines. The film's strongest progressive element is its use of a violent, extremist group as the antagonist, which serves as a direct critique of historical racial hierarchies. Female characters are granted substantial grit and intellectual autonomy, driving their own subplots within a volatile setting. This disrupts conventional gendered power dynamics often found in crime thrillers. However, the film lacks depth in LGBTQ+ and disability representation. While characters experience psychological trauma, these elements are used for genre tension rather than meaningful exploration of specific identities or lived experiences.

How are these scores produced? →

Featured in

  • Best Religious & Cultural Representation in Film
  • Religious & Cultural Representation in Drama

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