Sexy, sweaty, panting film noir goes splashily, vividly neon-hued in Motel Destino, a vague updating of The Postman Always Rings Twice done with all the Insta-filters selected. Very nice.
As in Postman, it’s a threeway affair. Heraldo the minor criminal hiding out in the Motel Destino, a sex motel run by the slightly older Dayana and her older-again husband Elias, who have no illusions about what their hotel is for – orgasmic moans echo down the corridor, it sells cock rings and dildos as a sideline.
To earn his keep while laying low, Heraldo starts doing odd jobs for Elias and Dayana. Dark-skinned, sexy young buck Heraldo often has his shirt off as it’s hot, hot as hell. Elias is often bare-chested too. He fancies himself as a bit of a stud and it’s his self-regard that’s his blind spot. In truth he’s a bit past it. His shorts are too tight. Dayana, nipples often visible through her t-shirt, gives off the vibe of a woman who needs a lot of servicing.
Are Dayana and Heraldo going to murder the older man to get him out of the way? That’s what happens in The Postman Always Rings Twice. And though there is no mention of James M Cain in the credits, his dabs are all over this intense drama, which is closer in tone to Visconti’s Obsession (same story) than the more familiar first official adaptation of Postman, starring John Garfield and Lana Turner.
By which I mean there is a gay frisson. Does Elias maybe fancy Heraldo too? Môco (Yuri Yamamoto), the fey night porter, certainly does.
Sexual intrigue is a great driver for a story, because it’s powerful and timeless. Cain wrote his novel – a wildly successful best seller – in 1934. It’s been adapted regularly ever since, whether with acknowledgement (Tay Garnett’s classic version from 1946, or the Jack Nicholson/Jessica Lange remake from1981) or without (by Visconti in Ossessione or Christian Petzold in Jerichow). There are several other versions – it seems to work every time.
Director and co-writer Karim Aïnouz’s novel approach works up an almost hallucinogenic atmosphere, with the superb cinematography of Hélène Louvart delivering him eye-popping primary colours – icy blues, fiery reds, pulsing yellows, all the primary colours. Louvart is one of the best DPs about at the moments – Invisible Life and Firebrand for Aïnouz, La Chimera for Alice Rohrwacher, Murina for Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic.
Amine Bouhafa’s score, too, is almost extra-terrestrial, almost dreamlike, of squeaks, harp strings and bleeps. Magical realism seems to stalk these surely dirty, unsavoury corridors. Outside the grim world of gangster death; inside, for all its negatives, a realm of safety and easy sex.
As in his previous films, like Futuro Beach and Invisible Life, Aïnouz conjures place brilliantly, as well as the sense of being trapped by circumstance and geography. He has a lovely eye for an image – this is a screen-capture movie.
What a brilliantly played three-hander (give or take the odd fringe character), the actors seeming to fit their roles as if they were those people. All three are superb but Fábio Assunçao gets extra points for playing the complex piggy in the middle. Should we feel sorry for Elias or should we side with Dayana and Heraldo and help them dig his grave? Assunçao plays it both ways, in a role – and with the hairstyle – Mickey Rourke might have once pulled off.
Nataly Rocha, meanwhile, is agent of sexy danger Dayana – a classic girl-can’t-help-it femme fatale, while Iago Xavier manages to be both studly as Heraldo, while suggesting he’s not entirely of this world. A holy fool, maybe. Or an avenging angel perhaps.
It’s intense, sexy, brilliantly staged and played. Surely Aïnouz’s best film to date.
Motel Destino – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
I am an Amazon affiliate
© Steve Morrissey 2025
