So much average

Crappy film

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Polsky brothers did a great job at bringing to life this intimate tale of two brothers adapted from Willy Vlautin's 2007 novel. Sympathy for the brother characters is rightly earned by two great performances from Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff. Having seen Emile in "Into the Wild (2007)", I feel that this style of film definitely suits his own style of acting. Dakota Fanning also add's her own valuable performance to the film, as one of her many stepping stones from the childhood actress we all knew to a young woman with a successful career ahead in her adult years. An intriguing drama that brings with it a sense of being realistic while still at times, managing to pull off brief humor while at other times being emotional. It isn't perfect but it is undeniably a touching movie, by far one of the better films out there and probably a film not seen by enough people.

The Motel Life (2012)Brimming with conventional thriller possibilities, including a serious tinge about brothers remaining loyal to the end, "The Motel Life" ends up a near miss in scene after scene. We learn quickly that there is a pact made between the two because of a mother who dies and leaves them little to live on. And we see how one brother has killed someone in his car by mistake (it seems) and so ends up dragging both brothers into the flight from justice.This all sounds solid, yes. But there are just those endless little things that set it wrong. The acting varies from excellent (Frank, one of the two brothers) to strained (Jerry, who overacts) to awkward (a couple of their friends playing stereotypical parts). The plot has elements of intensity, for sure—too many, you might say—but it also rings too many familiar bells. There is death, gambling, amputation, prostitution, drinking, gay-bashing, attempted suicide, theft (of a dog!), and an extended hospital scene that ends with great and necessary drama.To say the flaws here are the result of the low budget is to miss what might have been a golden opportunity: making a truly original story out of these young men caught between honor and ordinary crime. That is, there is a raw edge here that could have been exploited with less aggressive writing that tips every angle into sensational excess. Only the steady, thoughtful leading actor, Frank, played by Emile Hirsch, holds it all together and makes it, in the end, at least worth watching. To his credit, a small but key part by Kris Kristofferson is also compelling and gives the movie some weight.Co-directors Polsky and Polsky are new to movie-making, and it shows. But it's also apparent that something deeper is at work that might grow and be rewarding, especially with a better screenplay. Let's hope this is just a first tentative step forward.

"Don't make decisions thinking your a low life, make decisions thinking your a great man." When Jerry Lee (Dorff) tells his brother Frank (Hirsch) that he has just killed someone and drove away the decide the best thing to do is leave town. Frank tries to juggle finding a job, keeping a girlfriend and keeping his brother hidden and safe. This may be one of the hardest movies I've had to review. This movie isn't terrible and the acting is good, Kris Kristofferson is really great in this, but honestly nothing happens. It's a lot of repetition between the three aspects of Franks life. The best and easiest way to describe this is that the movie really has the feel of Out Of The Furnace. One brother watching out and trying to protect another but very slow moving and really waiting around for something to happen. It seems like I'm being hard on this, the acting is very good and its worth seeing for that but do not expect anything amazing and be prepared for a very long feeling hour and a half. Overall, if you like movies like Out Of The Furnace you will like this. I give this a C+.

Well it seems like an interesting indie movie on the surface, but in reality the story just fails to establish itself. All through out you can just never really find yourself caring for the characters or what has happened to them. That of course isn't helped by the fact that the acting is quite very poor in places and the directing too seems somewhat amateurish at times although is reasonably acceptable as a whole. The movie is also cluttered with songs, at times you just go from 1 song onto another which is not only annoying, but, in my opinion also takes away some credibility from what is going on. Not to mention that it is plainly obvious that the numerous use of songs is just a cover to try and pull you into a story that can't hold its own. The end is anti- climatic and utterly unsatisfying, leaving you wondering what exactly this whole story was about anyway and why it just bounced around for so long and never really went anywhere. The illustrated cartoons within the movie however are really good, well animated, well narrated and properly manage to capture the setting of the movie and the characters. So in short, watch this if you feel like watching a cavalier, semi- romanticized movie about impoverished life in midland USA.