Bad Times At The El Royale: Ranking Every Major Performance Worst To Best

5. Lewis Pullman As Miles Miller

Chris Hemsworth Bad Times At The El Royale
Fox

Lewis Pullman delivers a surprisingly excellent turn as Miles Miller, the subordinate working at the El Royale, and turns what could have easily been one of the film's weaker points into an incredible strong-suit.

When he's first introduced, Miller seems like little more than a drugged-out bus-boy, one who pretty much single-handedly runs the motel and doesn't exactly do a great job of it, either. But as the film progresses, the audience and the other character learn more and more about Miller and his past.

Where Pullman really excels is in the latter half of the film, where he's able to imbue Miller with a sense of dread and vehement remorse. Miller fears for his mortal soul and spends a large portion of the film looking to confess his sins to Father Daniel Flynn, and Pullman plays this PTSD-laden guilt to near-perfection.

Even the late-in-the-game reveal that Miller was actually an expert marksman in the Vietnam war, which is admittedly a bit rushed, earns a whole lot of integrity and credibility from Pullman's acting. The quick Vietnam montage requires him to express a sense of trauma that will haunt him for the rest of his life in the span of a few minutes, and Pullman somehow pulls it off.

Contributor
Contributor

A film enthusiast and writer, who'll explain to you why Jingle All The Way is a classic any day of the week.