20 Best Movies Of 2018
20. Bad Times At The El Royale
No director in recent years has channelled Quentin Tarantino as successfully as writer-director Drew Goddard did with this ambitious ensemble mystery-thriller.
But to be clear, this isn't some lazy Q.T. knock-off. Bad Times at the El Royale brings plenty of its own unique wit and exuberant style to the table, serving up a consistently compelling whodunit that impressively sees out its risky 141-minute runtime.
Particularly praise-worthy in front of the camera are Cynthia Erivo - who between this and Widows had quite the coming-out party in 2018 - a wonderfully gruff Jeff Bridges, and Chris Hemsworth at his absolute creepiest.
Goddard's confident direction has few hallmarks of a filmmaker on just their second movie, and regardless of the film's stillborn box office performance, he's clearly got a bright future in the business.
Unsurprisingly, he's already been scooped up to write and direct the upcoming X-Force movie.