Parents' Guide to

The Royal Hotel

Movie R 2023 91 minutes
The Royal Hotel movie poster: A side shot of characters Liv and Hanna as they look directly at the camera.

Common Sense Media Review

Danny Brogan By Danny Brogan , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 15+

Australian Outback thriller has threat, language, drinking.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Any Positive Content?

Jessica Henwick</a>, an English actor with a Singaporean-Chinese mother and a Zambian-born father. While the majority of the supporting cast are White males, there are two Aboriginal actors, one of whom is a woman who is given a pivotal role in the film. There is a character played by an actor with down syndrome, although they are not given much to do other than light firecrackers and cause a nuisance. The movie is directed and co-written by <a href=https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/"/search/Kitty Green">Kitty Green</a>, a White Australian woman.</p> ">

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 17+

Based on 1 parent review

age 17+

B movie, not Breaking Bad or Ozark

‘The Royal Hotel’ (IMDb) The“The Royal Hotel,” has the same dark tone as Ozark, but it’s just not as good. Actress Julia Garner plays in both, but her character in Ozark is far more interesting. This is a movie about young women defending themselves against predatory men in an alcohol fueled hotel bar. The stetting is in rural Australia, so the quality of the film transports the viewer to the beautiful desert “down-under.” It’s a thriller, and could have been a great movie. The hotel itself is interesting. It is the only building for miles in the middle of the Outback, and looks like it once had some smalltime Colonial grandeur. The entire movie, like the hotel itself feels like brown dirty sand: the landscape, the tattered leather sofa, the hotel bar, and many of the characters have the same aura. The plot could have been coloured a certain way to fit with this, but there are some quirks to the story. There is alot of drunkenness, that also feels tepid. There are scenes where the symbolism for the obvious misogyny ( storms, snakes, decrepit trailers and axes) has potential, but the storyline doesn’t live up to this. I was expecting Ozark or Breaking Bad, but this film has more of the production values of a B movie.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1 ):
Kids say: Not yet rated

The inspiration for this anxiety-ridden thriller was a 2016 documentary called Hotel Coolgardie. Like the documentary, The Royal Hotel is set in a remote pub in the Australian Outback that is frequented by mostly male customers who are looking for drunken excitement after a day down the mines. This excitement takes the form of joshing Hanna and Liv -- two friends in need of money to continue their backpacking adventure -- but soon becomes something a lot more sinister. It's a tense ride as it becomes clearer to our two central leads that they're out of their depth. However, director and co-writer Kitty Green doesn't make either women feel like victims, nor does the violence and threat feel gratuitous. Hanna, in particular, recognizing that perhaps they shouldn't have taken the job, is cautiously courageous and the pair are a good example of how friends can and should look out for each other. Both Garner (who reunites with Green after 2020's The Assistant) and Henwick are great, their want for adventure perhaps naive but also recognizable as young women exploring the world. The film won't ease the worries of any parents whose children are set to go on a backpacking adventure, but it can start important conversations about harassment, in all its many forms.

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