The following is an edition of Panther Picture Spotlight, The Mirror’s movie column. All views, thoughts and opinions belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Drury Mirror. 

“Bad Times at the El Royale” is the newest film from Drew Goddard, most famous for directing “Cabin in the Woods.” His latest is a ‘70s crime film with a fairly large ensemble cast.

This film is likely to end up being a cult classic. Unfortunately, it is struggling to find an audience in theaters because of its flaws.

First and foremost, the film is a little too long. It is 140 minutes: nearly a full hour longer than the average film. A movie of this nature probably does not need to be much longer than 90 minutes.

The ensemble does not do the film any favors, either.  There is not a main character, really, so much as there are many leads of different stories which intersect. But because there are so many storylines going on and they are all given the attention of a main arc, the film starts to drag at around the 100-minute mark. It is not that each arc is not an interesting stories, it is just that they feel a little cramped.

Each story takes its time.  There is an impressive scene towards the start with Jon Hamm which is about a 15-minute-long sequence told with mostly long shots with almost no dialogue. It just follows him as he makes discoveries about the hotel. It does not need to explain what is happening; it trusts the audience to keep up.

While “Bad Times” is excellent filmmaking, it also drags the film a little. Much of the film is like this; oxymoronically, the positive aspects of the film are also the negative ones.

This is most true of Chris Hemsworth’s character. (Minor spoilers ahead.) His character is introduced late in the film, and much of the last half spends its runtime filling in his backstory.  His introduction into the film revitalizes the plot. It also feels unjustified as it was not set up well enough at the beginning of the film. It feels like a natural extension of one story, but an intrusion on the others.

Much of the film feels unexpected like this, but a lot of what makes it unexpected also makes the structure messier. This makes “Bad Times” an enjoyable mess that is certainly worth seeing. It is just not for everyone.

Written by Jacob Maher.