Bridges & Company & Judas
Jeff Bridges has great instincts in choosing his roles. He added another good one to his fantastic canon in Bad Times at the El Royale, a mystery/thriller set in the late ‘60’s or so, which I watched last night courtesy of Netflix. Although it begins in linear form, it goes to time swings about 15 minutes into its 2:20 running time. The viewer understands why all the major players are at the hotel situated on the border between California and Nevada, near Lake Tahoe. A red dividing line is painted on the floor of the lobby, and half the rooms are in the separate states. I’m not sure if that is meant to represent the duality of nature of humans. Everyone present is severely damaged psychologically. Eventually all hell breaks loose. The blood splatter is more than I’ve seen in a while, but a lot of it occurs in dim lighting, which diminishes the gore. The cast features several familiar faces: Jon Hamm of Mad Men, Dakota Johnson of the 50 Shades series and Chris Hemsworth in a great departure from his Thor character in the Avengers series. They are as solid as expected, but the film belongs to Bridges and three supporting players with whom I was unfamiliar. Lewis Pullman is excellent as the lone clerk tortured by his violent past. London’s Cynthia Erivo, who won a Tony for The Color Purple, is fantastic as a singer whose been through the wringer. She does several numbers from the era acapella. She appears to be a major talent. The scariest character is the youngest, a teenager who seems to have a complete absence of moral sense, played by Cailee Spaeny. I was reminded of Bridget Fonda’s character in Jackie Brown (1997). Although this is familiar fare, it is absorbing. I watched it without interruption, never bored. It’s not perfect. If it was trying to make a statement about redemption, it was lost in the mayhem. It’s not cerebral. So what? Kudos to writer/director Drew Goddard, who is the midst of a most impressive career, having worked on TV hits such as Lost and Alias, among others, and writing the screenplays for World War Z (2013) and The Martian (2015). Surprisingly, Bad Times… did not do well at the box office. Made on a budget of $32 million, it fell a million short of breaking even worldwide. I’m sure it has turned a decent profit from DVD sales and rentals, and streaming. 82,000 users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 7.1 on a scale of ten. Those squeamish about violence or offended by vile conduct should pass. Babyboomers will enjoy the soundtrack. Here’s an arty pic of the principal cast minus Pullman and Spaeny:
My thanks to the gentleman who bought two massive medical tomes in Russian, and to the one who purchased five novels in that language, and to the woman who purchased three; and to the young man who selected a collection of Montaigne’s essays; and to Monse, who chose an oldies CD, the soundtracks of Only the Lonely (1991), starring the John Candy, and the TV version of Bye Bye Birdie (1995), starring Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams; and to the gentleman who settled his tab; and to Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar: A History of Lou Reed’s Music, who went home with the Beatles White Album and #1’s, and a three-disc collection of Pat Benatar songs, and The Gospel of Judas, which purports to be non-fiction. I don’t recall having heard of its discovery. According to Wiki, it is thought to have been composed by Gnostic Christians. The manuscript was radiocarbon dated and, according to National Geographic, as having been written between AD 220–340. It is believed to have been found by a treasure-hunter or prospector, and surfaced in Egypt in the late ‘70’s. It was first translated in the early 2000’s and portrays Judas as a divinely appointed instrument of a grand and predetermined purpose.
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