THE ROYAL HOTEL
★★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 18 / 91 MINS
DIRECTOR Kitty Green
CAST Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Herbert Nordrum, Hugo Weaving
From the second Liv (Jessica Henwick) and Hanna (Julia Garner) arrive at a pub in the Aussie outback for some temp work, the atmosphere is unsettling. There are flickers of joy amid the stress, but mostly The Royal Hotel is a stomach-churning slide into full-on dread, as the girls become more vulnerable, their working conditions more precarious, and the men’s attention and actions towards them start to cross a line. Director Kitty Green isn’t afraid to let the camera sit in the heavy silences, and the script, by Green and Oscar Redding, perfectly captures the delicate nature of the power dynamics on display. It’s a slight but mightily effective adrenaline rush of a movie, with powerful performances all round, and precise direction from Green.