The Motel Life

This low-key, noir-like thriller stars Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch as two orphaned brothers who spend their lives in dive bars, truck stops and motels as they drift from town to town across Nevada. But when Jerry Lee (Dorff) is involved in a hit-and-run accident, he and sibling Frank (Hirsch) are soon on the run, their relationship tested through increasingly desperate circumstances. First-time directors (and real-life brothers) Gabe and Alan Polsky offer up a sombre parable about loyalty and redemption, set in a poetic but flawed version of Americana - which might be expected in a film whose source novel is by eloquent outlaw country musician Willy Vlautin. The two leads work well in tandem, utterly convincing as social misfits bonded by blood, and there's strong support from Dakota Fanning as Frank's ex-girlfriend and Kris Kristofferson as a surrogate father figure.