The Royal Hotel (2023) Movie Review: A chilling critique of how superfluous and casual misogyny create unwarranted danger when the lenses are changed

“It’s Okay,” “Men are just like that,” and “He’s just joking” are only a few phrases that you might overhear around you when toxic and dangerous male behavior is often rationalized or normalized because it’s just too much task to make them understand how to behave right. Kitty Green’s chilling second feature, “The Royal Hotel,” is set in a remote outback mining town in Australia and follows two women forced to work as bartenders at the local pub after their backpacking trip is cut short as they run out of money.

Based on Pete Gleeson’s 2016 documentary “Hotel Coolgardie,” Oscar Redding co-wrote Green’s film, which stars Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick as Hanna and Liv, two American backpackers who agree to work as bartenders at Royal Hotel, a pub run by Billy (Hugo Weaving). Billy’s wife, Carol (Ursula Yovich), who also serves as the pub’s chef, is the only voice of authority and sanity in a town mostly filled with sexist, misogynistic men who drink to their heart’s content after finishing their daily jobs.

Green introduces us to the setting with an eerie, almost horror-filled gaze, as Hanna remains constantly uneasy about the way the men who frequent the pub make her feel. When Liv and Hanna arrive at their destination after running out of money in Sydney, they are welcomed with curses, no sense of privacy, and sexist remarks that they initially brush off as cultural shock. The local employment agency that suggested the place remarked that they would have to power through some unwarranted male attention, but what they find at the world’s end is more than just cultural shock.

The director draws a wedge between how women often perceive things when they are just trying to survive and how things are for them. The male behavior in the town is downright degrading if you see it from the perspective of Hanna and Liv. However, the writing also supersedes and flirts with the idea that ‘maybe’ this behavior is okay because these are just lonely men who are blowing off some steam after a hard, long day at work.

There’s always the offset of violence erupting out and bringing the girls in harm’s way. But they can’t possibly rage against such ill behavior because they are stuck in a situation of their own making. This moral play often leaves Liv feeling like it’s okay that they have to face being objectified or downgraded for being a ‘piece of meat’ for their male counterpart to devour. But, for Hanna, everything – from being forced to smile and serve drinks to avoiding male attention entirely so that she can have a moment to herself, brings chilling horror-like worry your way.

Director Kitty Green, essentially flips the switch on us, simultaneously digging into our voyeuristic gaze, putting us on the pedestal where judgment is rallied on us. Much like her debut film “The Assistant,” this is a look at toxic work culture and how drawing a line becomes increasingly difficult for women because of the lack of opportunities they have. We don’t get to know the socio-economic hardships that these girls have had to face, to afford their vacation because we have been taught to take a ‘vacation’ as a privilege. So, a lot of elements are already working against the very aspect that Green is trying to bring to us. But, the filmmaker runs a tight ship; all her elements build up to some of the most believably tense moments you’d see in a lean thriller like this one.

A lot of the film’s weight rides on Julia Garner’s turn as Hanna, and the actress delivers one of her finest performances in a story that feels ripped out of pulpy novels once it inches towards its climax. We get a hint of loneliness in her character’s motivations; she develops a nice little rapport with one of the men at the pub, but her inability to trust her nearest surroundings – essentially a hounding rally of really horny men that can tip off at any moment, doesn’t let her emotional run in a line. The kind of built-in, repressed female rage that the film channels via Hanna, despite the tone the film is going for, feels absolutely and brutally real.

The only gripe I have with the film is how Jessica Henwick’s Liv is not given enough to work with. Beyond us knowing that she is on the last penny she has ever owned, or her wish to just rush away from where she belongs, there’s very little the film does for us to understand her. It helps that Liv and Hanna have good back-and-forth between them, allowing “The Royal Hotel” to become a chilling critique of how superfluous and casual misogyny can create unwarranted danger when the lenses are changed.