Friday One Sheet: HOTEL MUMBAI

As fitting for a movie with the word HOTEL in the title, the most recent poster for Hotel Mumbai features the sumptuous interior design of one of the rooms. Because the film is about the 2008 terror attacks on the eponymous hotel, the rooms is riddled with bullets, and the flower-petal infused bath-tub has a subtle blooming of blood in the water. The warm brown tones are somewhat of an anomaly in poster design, so suffice it to say, this kind of 'still life' (no actors visible) should stand out in a multiplex lobby.

There are some further nice touches in the design here: the chunky room-phone handset casually sitting on the chair; the film's credit block tucked into the white-space of the inside of the bathtub and in plane with the surface; and the high-contrast feel of the image that makes it look both artistic and like a crime scene photo.

Hotel Mumbai played on the festival circuit in 2018 to somewhat tepid reviews (at least the ones that reach my ears).  But this striking key art to kick off our column entries for 2019, as re-upped my interest in seeking the film out, when it drops into select theatres in March.