Alt-country singer Willy Vlautin’s songs (with band Richmond Fontaine) were bittersweet stories about life’s losers, and his transition to writer seemed effortless. His first novel, persuasively adapted here by the Polsky brothers (with brilliantly conceived animated interludes), is the elegiac tale of rootless brothers Frank (Emile Hirsch) and Jerry Lee (Stephen Dorff), whose already hardscrabble existence takes a turn for the worse when Jerry Lee is involved in a hit and run, leaving Frank to pick up the pieces. Hirsch and especially Dorff are terrific in a film that’s so downbeat, you may not notice your heart breaking.
The Motel Life Review
Reno, Nevada. Brothers Frank (Hirsch) and Jerry Lee (Dorff) live hand-to-mouth, eking out an existence by doing odd jobs. When Jerry kills a cyclist in a tragic accidence, the blame is unfairly pinned on him and the pair are left to make some desperate decisions.
Release Date:
04 Apr 2014
Running Time:
85 minutes
Certificate:
15
Original Title:
Motel Life, The
Powerful, moving and melancholy. A low-key treat.
Just so you know, whilst we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website, we never allow this to influence product selections - read why you should trust us