Sanctuary Turns One Hotel Room Into a Psychological Battlefield

Two actors. One hotel room. Approximately zero healthy ways to end a relationship.

Sanctuary starts with what should be a fairly straightforward goodbye. Hal is preparing to take over his late father's luxury hotel empire and decides it's time to end his longtime arrangement with Rebecca, the dominatrix who knows considerably more about him than the future CEO would probably like. Rebecca does not exactly accept the severance package. What follows turns one conversation into a constantly shifting battle over power, control, intimacy, humiliation, and who actually understands whom better.

That's about as much of the game as we're revealing. Director Zachary Wigon and screenwriter Micah Bloomberg keep almost the entire movie inside one luxury hotel suite, which means there are no car chases, sprawling mysteries, or convenient location changes to hide behind. Sanctuary lives or dies on two people talking, bluffing, performing, provoking, and repeatedly making you reconsider who has control of the room. Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott make sure looking away feels like a tactical error.

It's sexy, uncomfortable, and very funny when you least expect it. And every time you think you've finally figured out what kind of movie you're watching, Sanctuary seems delighted to move the goalposts. That unpredictable push-and-pull earns it a comfortable spot alongside the mind games, dangerous relationships, and bad decisions waiting inside Tubi's Thrillers collection.