‘Am I yelling? No… Because you’re not someone even worthy of that…’
I worked behind a bar for nearly a decade and so I’ve seen many, many times how disgusting older men can be around younger women – particularly barmaids. In 2019, writer-director Kitty Green dropped The Assistant – a film that confronted gender politics in the workplace. With The Royal Hotel, Green reunites with Julia Garner to return to this subject but this time with higher stakes…
Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are a pair of Canadian backpackers who take a job in a remote Australian pub to earn a bit of extra cash. Upon arrival, they are faced with an aggressive employer (Hugo Weaving), unruly customers and relentless isolation.
What The Royal Hotel perfectly captures is that faux-friendly demeanour that predatory men often employ. Encouraging a woman to smile. Buying them a drink one minute and then being overly familiar the next. This is in part due to the casting (all the Aussy drinkers are terrifying in one way or another) and partly due to Garner’s committed and convincing performance. The film also effectively portrays a situation spiralling out of control. The tension builds along a sense of impending doom and this ominous atmosphere eventually culminates in a fittingly grim denouement that will be sadly resonant for any young women who have worked in customer-facing roles.
The Royal Hotel is a captivating outback thriller that has something important to say without being overly didactic. If this is to be the start of an ongoing creative relationship between Garner and Green then I’m all in.