Given the experiences chronicled in Kitty Green’s last film, 2019’s The Assistant, it seems likely she’s been the unwilling recipient of the age-old sexist exhortation: Smile more! Her new film The Royal Hotel could be summed up as Smile More: The Movie, which grounds a clash between two globe-separated cultures in old-time misogynist tropes that know no geographic borders. Like The Assistant, the movie revolves around women in the presence of atmospheric male domination. Gendered maltreatment is in the very air they breathe.
The films are divided by their on-and-off-screen sources: one is a fictionalized account inspired by the criminal record of producer Harvery Weintsein, with the newer film has direct real-life basis in Pete Glesson’s 2016 documentary Hotel Coolgardie. In the fiction version, bestie backpackers Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) start off partying hard in Sydney – so hard that Liv runs out of funds. Cut off from access to noisy clubs and cheap drinks, the ladies engage a temp service for jobs, willing for any opportunity to keep their never-ending holiday alive and boozing.
The first and only available gig is a far-flung bartending gig at a hotel in the Australian Outback. Hanna and Liv arrive at their destination and meet a rude awakening. The hotel isn’t quite a dump. It isn’t quite a flophouse. It’s one aspiring to be the other, and either way, they’re not happy with their digs, or their boss, Billy (Hugo Weaving). Billy busts into the facilities with frantic, tipsy energy; daily showers are a luxury, and while there’s technically no language barrier preventing both parties from conversing, even English-speaking countries have their own dialectal quirks – in this case, “cunt,” which in Australia means something different from what it means in America. (And Canada. Recognizing that everyone likes Canadians and are generally iffy on Americans, Hanna and Liv fib about their nationality.)
Of course, that word also means exactly what it means in the U.S., which makes every interaction Hanna and Liv have with Billy and his predominantly male customer base a guessing game. Any given comment made by any given person walks a tightrope of amicability and hostility. Green foregrounds this dynamic while holding another, the language of sexual harassment and aggression, in comparative reserve. Trusting that her viewers are familiar with the way the world works for women, she repeatedly inserts sexual improprieties into each scene as a matter of fact, a kind of buttressing element for the chief focal point of cultural machismo. Characters in The Assistant excuse weaponized sexual pressure, but with obvious discomfort. Characters in The Royal Hotel accept that same behavior as an unavoidable part of life.
Neither film treats these forms of violation as normal, but in The Royal Hotel, those violations are normalized by the Australian men: Billy, locals like Matty (Toby Wallace), and the assembly of miners who patronize the hotel after a hard day’s work, like Kev (Nic Darrigo), Spanners (Ben Eggleston), and especially Dolly (Daniel Henshall), the film’s de facto antagonist. One second he’s liberating a big damn snake from Hanna and Liv’s room in a surprising act of gallantry. The next he’s leaving the thing dead in a vase behind the bar, with Hanna’s name on it. Hanna’s alarm over Dolly is met by the same response from most: Eh, Dolly’s okay. Even Liv shrugs off her friend’s fears.
The only person who does listen is Carol (Ursula Yovich), Billy’s business partner and bittersweet romantic partner, and the hotel’s real heart. As long as she’s around, the women’s fears are more or less allayed. When she’s not, they come back on Hanna double, while the people so determined to brush her off dig in further. Such is the allure of ribaldry fueled by testosterone, and enhanced by alcohol. It’s all in coarse, harmless fun, until a shadow under the door announces the unwelcome presence of an intoxicated brute who understands, as the temp service does, that Hanna and Liv are only at the hotel for objectification’s sake.
Garner’s starring roles in these Green films function as additional connective tissue between the two. In The Assistant, Green positions her star at the bottom of the frame; the choice gives visualization to the psychic weight of the abuses she witnesses and tries to stomach every day put on her shoulders. The Royal Hotel opts for an eye-level view instead, putting Hanna and Liv on even ground with the men. Green’s perspective here gives the illusion of empowerment via their employment; she gives Hanna and Liv confidence, only for circumstances to rob them of it. This makes The Royal Hotel feel harsher than The Assistant, though it’s neither as economical nor as soul-crushing. At least The Royal Hotel has what passes for an upbeat ending. In the film’s darkest moments, though, remember that timeless tactic for getting through to the other side: Just smile.
Director: Kitty Green
Writer: Kitty Green, Oscar Redding
Starring: Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Hugo Weaving, Toby Wallace, Ursula Yovich, Daniel Henshall, James Frecheville
Release Date: October 6, 2023
Bostonian culture journalist Andy Crump covers the movies, beer, music, and being a dad for way too many outlets, perhaps even yours. He has contributed to Paste since 2013. You can follow him on Twitter and find his collected work at his personal blog. He’s composed of roughly 65% craft beer.