Before watching the film THE MOTEL LIFE, I did a little digging on its making – in particular the motives of actor Stephen Dorff to get it made and play one of the key leads, a role even he thought he wasn’t qualified to fill.
Way back in deepest 2010, qualified Hollywood Hunk Stephen Dorff found himself on the industry’s mega hot list after starring in Sofia Coppola’s quietly beautiful ‘Somewhere’, a drama about a Hollywood actor and his lonely daughter. Dorff said that he recalls a stream of offers at the time from a fickle business that he’s been navigating since he was 12. As he sifted through the stack of scripts that he’d been sent, he finally came across what he was looking for. “What the fuck is this doing at the bottom of my pile?” Dorff recalls asking his agent. The movie in question was THE MOTEL LIFE, and what a joy it turned out to be.
Before watching the film THE MOTEL LIFE, I did a little digging on its making – in particular the motives of actor Stephen Dorff to get it made and play one of the key leads, a role even he thought he wasn’t qualified to fill.
Way back in deepest 2010, qualified Hollywood Hunk Stephen Dorff found himself on the industry’s mega hot list after starring in Sofia Coppola’s quietly beautiful ‘Somewhere’, a drama about a Hollywood actor and his lonely daughter. Dorff said that he recalls a stream of offers at the time from a fickle business that he’s been navigating since he was 12. As he sifted through the stack of scripts that he’d been sent, he finally came across what he was looking for. “What the fuck is this doing at the bottom of my pile?” Dorff recalls asking his agent. The movie in question was THE MOTEL LIFE, and what a joy it turned out to be.
Based on the popular novel by cult musician and author Willy Vlautin, THE MOTEL LIFE is a profound examination of brotherhood set in the timeless, often bleak Sierra Nevadan frontier. The film was shot over 25 days in Reno, and it didn’t have an easy path to the big screen. Despite a prominent cast featuring Dorff, Emile Hirsch and Dakota Fanning, it was bizarrely rejected by indie distributors and film festivals at the time. A round of edits made the final cut much stronger, but the directors had missed the opportunity for a splashy debut at Sundance and it was eventually self-distributed under their own label, Polsky Films.
The two leads are amazing, playing doomed brothers Frank and Jerry Lee who are grown men, but damaged and perpetually on the run, living in the permanent American underclass with little chance of escape and happiness. The quiet and often mesmerising tale could have been a cheesy mess in less sensitive hands, but the directors and the super talented cast, through a mix of delicacy, mood, and emotion, have made a film that is as heartbreaking as it is a joy to watch.
We see the brothers as children, as broken youngsters and finally as seemingly doomed men. Their bond is unmistakable – and even unhealthy – but they have no one else in the world but one another. Dorff’s Jerry Lee is challenged in a way that goes far beyond his amputated leg, and the actor’s performance is subtle and incredible. Whatever might be truly wrong with Jerry Lee is not made explicit, and Dorff’s performance is damn near worthy of being called a masterpiece. For someone who questioned even his own capacity to fill the role the actor is outstanding, and when Frank steals the pair a dog for company and tells Jerry Lee about it, Dorff's face opens in a childlike smile that is almost unbearable to watch as he simply says, "We always wanted a dog!"
Hirsch and Dorff are amazing together too – and apparently the talented pair - years before acting together - agreed at a party that yes, one day they would play brothers. Actors often are unable to convince us that they go way back to childhood and grew up in the same family but with this pair, you never doubt it for one second.
An amazing, unmissable watch.
Screening Times:
17/06/2015 08:30pm
21/06/2015 10:20pm
22/06/2015 06:10am
14/07/2015 09:35pm
15/07/2015 03:45am
27/07/2015 10:25pm