R, 85 min.
Directors: Alan Polsky,
Gabriel Polsky
Writers: Micah
Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, Willy Vlautin (novel)
Starring: Emile Hirsch,
Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Joshua Leonard, Noah Harpster, Kris Kristofferson
Saturday is always the most
surreal day of Ebertfest. I don’t know why. I wonder if they try to program the
films in a way to produce an eerie sense of being adrift. It’s not a criticism.
It just always seems that Saturday is the “lost” day of the festival, with
characters trying to find their way through the morass of life. Saturday is the
longest day of films and the atmosphere created by them makes it a sort of
wonderful cinematic experience.
This year’s Saturday
schedule included the films “Wild Tales”, “Ida”, “The Motel Life” and “99 Homes”. I watched two of these this
year and both have a distinct feel of despair about them. The first was “Ida”,
with its black and white cinematography and somber subject matter; it certainly
played into that atmosphere I described. “The Motel Life” is another strong fit
for the Saturday feel.
The movie is about two
brothers. One accidentally hits someone with his car one night and kills him.
He runs. The two brothers are very close and have lived out of motels since
they were too young to be on their own because their mother died and their
father had never been a part of their lives. One brother is an artist and lost
his leg in an accident just six months after their mother’s death. The other
tells fantasy stories that involve their amazing adventures, which often
involve their father as well.
Having always lived out of
motels, it’s no surprise these guys aren’t well off financially. They must go
on the run and they do a good job making the best of their situation. This film
may mark the first time I’ve ever seen the Big Gamble work out for a lead
character whose life is otherwise difficult. That’s an interesting change of
formula.
The story is purely about
their relationship. The morality of what has happened is a moot point. This is
their life and they survive it. What happened to the hit and run victim is
unfortunate, and they do what they can to make it as right as they can.
However, the question of justice doesn’t much enter into it. It happened. Of
course, the brother who did it feels terrible and he does try something drastic
that I think has more to do with how his actions have frequently affected his
brother as much as it is about the guilt he feels for killing someone.
Ironically, he seems to be the more positive of the two.
The performances by Emile
Hirsch as the storyteller and care giving brother and Stephen Dorff as the
artist and unfortunate cause of the events are the key to the film’s success.
For anyone wondering about Dorff’s skill as an actor, look no further than his
amazing turn as an actor who discovers he really isn’t anybody in Sofia
Coppola’s “Somewhere”. Emile Hirsch is possibly one of the most underrated
actors out there. He’s wonderful in just about everything he does. Here the two
put in performances that are up there with their best. They make surprisingly
convincing brothers. Theirs is a journey of love.
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