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| Movies,
Mark Bristow,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F3
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Motel Cactus is almost entirely set within the confines of Room 407 of the Cactus Motel, a 'love hotel'. Four episodes follow one another consecutively as four couples spend a night in the room.
It is photographed by Chris Doyle, cameraman for Wong Kar-Wei on Chunkung Express and Fallen Angels amongst others, as well as the recent Psycho re-make (his first American film). Motel Cactus has the same look, ambience, and subject matter of a Wong Kar-Wei film: Snapshots of desire, urban alienation, attractive young couples fucking because they don't know how else to express themselves, and a reliance on people looking out of windows at the rain outside whilst smoking. However, what it lacks from Wong Kar-Wei's ostensibly cool films is the inspired use of music and his humour. What we are left with is a downbeat, fragmented mood piece that relies too heavily on the beautiful photography. And the photography is beautiful, all saturated colours and clever angles, shot largely from the floor, echoing the low-level living of the interior design. This leaves the film being cool in a way that beautiful people who never speak are cool, eventually they open their mouth and you realise they haven't got anything interesting to say.
UK rating:
18
US rating:
R
Young Park1997, Korea
NA
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