BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (2018)

It's 1969, and several guests, each with his/her secrets, arrive at the empty El Royale Hotel, on the border of California and Nevada. The two most straightforward stories belong to Doc O'Kelly (Jeff Bridges), posing as a priest, who wants to recover a stash of money he hid under the floorboards after an armored car robbery 10 years earlier; and Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), a lounge singer on her way to a gig in Reno. The rest are too convoluted to go into here. Director Drew Goddard makes like Tarantino (or perhaps Lynch) in providing a stylish, somewhat menacing setting situation, with sudden (but not excessive) violence and some partly illuminating flashbacks. The movie is pretty gripping for the first 90 minutes or so. Then it just falls apart for the remaining hour, dominated by the sudden appearance of a sadistic, exceedingly irritating, guru. Bridges, always good, is excellent here, and Erivo is even better--and a first-class singer as well. The rest is forgettable.