Starting like a classic film noir and ending like a Tarantino movie, Drew Goddard employs his pick-and-mix approach that made The Cabin In The Woods so refreshing and interesting and takes the viewer on quite a journey. Set (mostly) in the late 1960s, and with a killer soundtrack, this is not so much slow-burn storytelling as gently-glowing-embers, as this tale of travellers thrown together at this peculiar hotel unfolds very, very carefully. The cast is sublime - inevitably, this is the type of material that gives actors like Chris Hemsworth, Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges and (escaping from the 50 Shades nonsense) Dakota Fanning plenty to work with and to do terrific work, but also very notable are Cynthia Erivo as the working singer and Lewis Pullman as the jack-of-all-trades concierge who both are fantastic to watch here. Sudden bursts of violence punctuate the almost languorous pacing (and you do begin to fear that a sandwich in the lobby vending machine will get its backstory told at some point), but the trade-offs come in the slow reveals and steady linking of seemingly disparate elements, mis-directions and of course the terrific dialogue and character work on display. Looking beautiful, this is a long but rewarding film to savour and with which to have patience - taken on those terms, this is a very strong achievement all round.
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