‘The Royal Hotel’ (2023) Review: The Escalating Ugliness of Misogynistic Aggressions
Set in a remote location in the Australian Outback, two American best friends take a temporary live-work job as a bartender at a pub. With rowdy customers who harass the patrons and shout misogynistic slurs that cut deep like a knife, Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel observes the tense and aggressive nature of how violence can slowly manifest physically and verbally.
Green’s sophomore feature is inspired by a 2016 documentary, Hotel Coolgardie, which explores the sexism faced by young Finnish backpackers in the Australian Outback. It is a discerning outlook on the realities of an outsider working in a foreign land; in the case of The Royal Hotel, gender-based violence and misogynistic microaggressions build a tense and dangerous landscape with nowhere to run.
Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are best friends backpacking in Australia. While partying in Sydney on a boat, Liv runs out of money because she spends money on drinks. With no other options, Hanna and Liv accept a remote live-in job behind the bar of a pub called ‘The Royal Hotel’ in a mining town. The bar owner, Billy (Hugo Weaving) and his business partner, Carol (Ursula Yovich), explain to them how they operate, and they get to work. On their first night, the town bids farewell to the previous bartenders, who are British backpackers. The crowd is feisty. It is filled with local miners visiting the bar after work, getting drunk and hurling misogynistic slurs at Hanna and Liv.
They are tested on the first night. Hanna is painted as a bitter party-pooper who doesn’t know how to take a joke, and the patrons keep telling her to smile more. While Liv embraces the rowdy and questionable behaviour of the men, she becomes friendly with the locals. Matty (Toby Wallace) is drawn to Hanna and invites her and Liv to go and swim at a pond under a waterfall. Teeth (James Frecheville) is a quiet mine worker but takes a possessive interest in Liv, and then there’s Dolly (Daniel Henshall). He shows up at the bar at odd hours and stares at Hanna and Liv with a menacing gaze. As the days go by, the tensions escalate. Hanna and Liv find themselves in a dangerous situation with a bar full of screaming patrons they cannot control and fear for their lives.
The Royal Hotel is a woman’s worst nightmare. It successfully portrays the increasing danger of violence and verbal abuse through the perspective of Hanna’s cautionary eyes. Green is only interested in showing Hanna and Liv’s perspectives and how differently they react to the situations from the start of the movie to their arrival at the remote bar.
In the beginning, Hanna enjoys the casual hook-up with Torsten (Herbert Nordrum), a Norwegian traveller she meets on the boat. When Liv tells her they have run out of money, Hanna begins to worry. They want to keep travelling and signs up for a travel-work assignment in the Australian Outback. The woman who offers the job warns them about the place, which might have a group of male onlookers. When they arrive at the bar, Hanna wants to leave immediately. The pub is barely stable — both financially and structurally. Liv convinces her best friend to give the place a chance, so Hanna does.
From this point, the movie observes the patrons through the eyes of Hanna. She doesn’t participate in the patron’s microaggressions, unlike Liv, who wants to enjoy and drink with her new friends. Hanna becomes reserved and cautious about her surroundings. She observes the regulars, especially Dolly, who lurks in their sleeping quarters late at night. Even when Hanna lets her guard down with Matty, her unsettledness deepens. Her discomfort increases as Matty and Dolly’s appearance turns suspiciously dangerous. It’s interesting how Green uses their different interactions to create friction in their relationship. Not only that, Green knows how to balance suspense and ambiguity while building a social narrative of aggressive male behaviours. There is a deeper psychological commentary that weaves itself into the story that shows the variations of these behaviours and how they escalate to nefarious levels.
Even though Green has put a lot of thought into the story’s themes, an element is missing. Hanna and Liv reveal that they are backpacking in Australia because they want to get away from something back home in America. Maybe Green wants to leave the audience guessing. But when the reason is left ambiguous, it’s challenging to understand their emotional sense.
Regardless, Green knows how to control the narrative with suspense and microaggressive moments. The Royal Hotel builds tense in uncertain surroundings with violent masculinity and terrifying toxic cultures. Green’s third act is the best part of the movie because it escalates the situation with fearful moments and explosive noises. A perceptive look at two young American backpackers’ journey through hell in the Australian Outback to survive the predatory eyes of men.
Here are some reading materials to learn about the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement:
Books about Palestine on Verso Books
Books about Palestine on Haymarket Books
