Bad Times at the El Royal

Drew Goddard went ambitious with his second feature film, but it’s the kind of ambitious that could be accomplished without that much money. The narrative is sprawling, but the physical scope of the action is actually quite contained in that eponymous hotel on the California and Nevada state line.

There’s a lot going on in the film, but after only a single viewing I’m a little unsure of how cohesive everything under the surface is. I’m not convinced one way or the next whether it’s a mess or...