TIFF 2023: The Royal Hotel Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

When COVID-19 was officially labeled a global pandemic and movie theatres were forced to shut down, Hollywood scrambled to push every major release to the next calendar year. Many cinephiles were worried for the future of their beloved medium, but 2020 ended up being an extremely important year for independent cinema, introducing us to a plethora of filmmakers who may go on to define the decade in film. Among this new class of filmmakers was Kitty Green, whose debut The Assistant earned critical praise for its down to earth  portrayal of gender roles in the workplace, encapsulating everything the #metoo movement stands for. While the film was perhaps a tad too timid to fully leave an impact, Green proved that she has knack for naturally building tension. She worked very well with Julia Garner to depict the uncomfortable situations that women have been placed in the workplace by male co-workers. 

Green’s sophomore effort sees the up-and-coming independent filmmaker flourish into one of her generations most promising artistic voices. Green reunites with Garner and teams up with Jessica Henwick for another film that depicts the real-life horrors that many women have to face at the hands of men. Garner and Henwick portray Hanna and Liv, two best friends backpacking through Australia who run out of funds and are forced to take a bartending job in a remote mining town in order to continue their trip. The pair get familiar with the locals and experience male aggression and fragile egos to varying degrees, winding up in a situation that quickly spirals out of control. 

Green naturally captures a sense of paranoia that makes The Royal Hotel more tense and upsetting than most horror flicks. By setting the film in the Australian outback, hours away from the closest major city, she paints a picture of a barbaric world where men are constantly on their worst behavior and the women in that area are subject to violence, harassment and misogyny. The film highlights the scorching heat and deserted landscapes, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere that only becomes more suffocating during the scenes set within the bar. Green skillfully builds tension in a way that places audiences in the shoes of the protagonists and makes them expect danger at every turn. 

Despite the difficult subject matter, The Royal Hotel is ultimately a film that celebrates female friendship in a profound fashion. Garner and Henwick anchor the film with impeccable lead performances. The pair work wonders as their chemistry shines through. Garner, in particular, delivers one of her strongest performances to date as the cautious friend of the duo who anticipates danger before it happens. She captures a sense of anxiousness and vulnerability on screen that makes the film such an effective portrayal of the situations that many women have unfortunately had to deal with.

In the end, The Royal Hotel is a significant leap in quality from Kitty Green’s debut feature and cements her as a promising filmmaker with the potential to become one of the most important artistic voices of her generation. 

*still courtesy of Elevation Pictures*

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Tristan French