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

Learn the name Cynthia Erivo well, boys and girls, because in a few year's time she's going to be the biggest thing on the planet.

In a film full of incredible actors and performances, Cynthia Erivo makes her cinematic debut here and absolutely steals the entire film. Darlene is a struggling singer who stops at the El Royale on her way to Reno for a performance.

Any scene in which Erivo gets to sing, its a delight. For starters, her vocals are gorgeous, but perhaps more importantly, the way she really allows Darlene as a character to come to life in these scenes is breathtaking.

In her exchanges with other characters, Darlene is frequently quiet and visibly reserved, measuring her every word. Erivo plays her in these moments as a carefully-calculated character, who is constantly studying her counterparts. But in the scenes where she's singing, Erivo's performance is like watching a flower bloom before your very eyes, as Darlene's presence expands to fill up the entire frame.

Her best moment in the entire film is one of Goddard's long-takes, in which Darlene is singing to distract potential on-lookers from Father Flynn's attempts to get under the floorboards of her room. As the camera slowly pushes in on her, Darlene takes off the wig that she's been wearing for the entirety of the film, revealing her true self. In Erivo's hands, this intimate character moment feels huge, as Darlene literally changes the way she sees herself.

It's one of the film's greatest moments, all thanks to Erivo's consistently mesmerizing performance.