The Royal Hotel

Unlike The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, or the Hotel California, The Royal Hotel is not the kind of place you want to find yourself. In this anxiety-inducing psychological thriller, Hanna and Liv, American backpackers in the Australian Outback, find themselves out of money and out of ideas. The only way to get back on their feet is to try and find a job but, in the remote Outback, who knows what trouble they might find? Kitty Green imbues The Royal Hotel with an edge-of-your-seat intensity as Hanna and Liv find themselves surrounded by misogynistic men and unwanted sexual advances. This feminist indie film is hard-hitting and nerve-racking as you wonder just how the backpackers will make it out, avoiding the pitfalls of snakes, poor bus scheduling, and drunk men with axes along the way.

Daniel Kallin