RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
Right Royale romp
MARIA DUARTE recommends a zany US thriller set in a hotel where the guests all have something to hide
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
Bad Times at the El Royale (15)
Directed by Drew Goddard
FROM the director of The Cabin in the Woods comes a smart and stylish mystery thriller with a political and social edge. Part film noir, part crime fiction, part dark comedy, Bad Times at the El Royale is wonderfully gripping and entertaining.
Set in January 1969, against the backdrop of Richard Nixon having been inaugurated as the 37th US President, it has seven strangers — each with a secret to bury — arriving at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale hotel which, like its visitors, has fallen into disrepute. Bizarrely, half of the hotel is situated in Nevada, the other half in California.
With the action unfolding over the course of one night, in a single location, each character is given a shot at redemption.
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