The Royal Hotel will certainly strike a chord with those of you who have backpacked across Australia, been on a gap year, or, in general, gone on a major finding yourself trip across the globe.
For the movie, director Kitty Green reunites with Ozark actress Julia Garner, who starred in her 2019 film The Assistant, for the tale of two American backpackers whose trip on the other side of the globe doesn't go as planned.
Julia takes on the role of Hanna, while Glass Onion actress Jessica Henwick plays her bestie, Liz as they journey to a remote male-dominated mining town in Australia's Outback. Strapped for cash, they take a job at a temporary live-in job position at the titular Royal Hotel. While the woman who informs them of the gig tells them they should be "OK with a little male attention", they never expect to find themselves confronted by unruly locals in an unnerving situation that escalates beyond their control.
Hailed a feminist thriller, the daunting aspect of The Royal Hotel is that Kitty was inspired by the 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie, which followed the real-life experiences of two young Scandinavian women who signed up for temporary work at an isolated bar only to be met by eager and excited men, whose primary joy in life was to wait every three months for a new bevvy of backpackers coming into town to work at their only bar.
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Kitty, who is an Australian native herself, explained that it was an interesting film for her to bring to life, given the difference in attitudes Down Under and in America. Speaking of the two women in the doc, she said: "They were able to say, 'Hang on! That's not right. You can't say that to me.' They were able to say, 'No.' As Australian women, we've learnt to just go, 'You know, he's all right, it's OK.' And just put up with it."
Discussing what she wanted to achieve by bringing in female American characters to the mix for her film, Kitty added to IndieWire: "When you bring in a different culture, these girls are calling out the behaviour that Australian women would put up with. It is a way of looking at what's right and wrong, and what should we deal with? So, I think it's a conversation we need to have in Australia. I'm not going to just say it's only Australia's problem because the same thing happens in college dorm parties in the U.S. So it's about those moments: where do you draw the line? Dancing on that line was interesting to me."
The Royal Hotel opened its doors to a wonderful reception when it premiered at both Telluride and Toronto Film Festival and currently boasts an 89 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is major.
Check in to The Royal Hotel when it hits cinemas on 3 November.
