One of the quintessential members of the newest Brazilian cinema, the movement of authors, was the renovation of filmmakers working with diverse topics and smaller budgets. Karim Aïnouz built a reputation for himself. His melodramatic tropes resembling Douglas Sirk and Fassbinder added to his decisive colors and narrative construction of Exodus. Following his Un Certain Regard win with The Invisible Life in 2019, Aïnouz presented three films in the last four years. Mariner of the Mountains (2021), Firebrand (2023), and Motel Destino (2024), all of them having their world premiere in Cannes, the last two in the competition.
His latest, Motel Destino, returns to the Brazilian countryside, specifically, the inner side of Ceará. The film presents Heraldo (Iago Xavier), a twenty-something man who his city gang organizations raised. When he decides to leave the crime and move to São Paulo to open a car garage, his boss mandates a last crime. He and his brother must find a Frenchman who owes her money and kill him. In a turn of events, Heraldo has a one-night stand with a mysterious woman who robs and leaves him alone in a Motel, a Brazilian rental room dedicated to sex. When he gets out of the room and suddenly needs an escapade, Heraldo looks for help in the Motel Destino, where Dayana (Nataly Rocha) and Elias (Fábio Assunção) welcome him and give him a place to stay amidst his hunt.
Influenced by the classical Neo-Noir structures, the film adapts the specificities of Brazilian society to the classical genre. While in the popular movies of the 1940s and 1950s, the crime and out-of-screen sexual tension would dictate the stories, Aïnouz throws out sex and violence in the frames. Héléne Louvart uses her 16mm cinematography to print texture and style to the dry landscapes of Céará. She contrasts the beaches, sand, and palm trees. The purplish, reddish, and yellowish color grading prints a carnal spirit on the screen. There is heat there, not only in the weather but also in the body’s temperature of desire. When it proposes to deconstruct the classical noir narrative beats, it is when it thrives the most. There is a constant danger: the fear of getting caught while cheating, voyeurism, and crimes.
Aïnouz relies on sound construction to expand this sensory experience. The frames transmit danger, desire, and the sexual need that is intrinsic to the survival of those characters. It differs when the music by Amine Bouhafa creates a parallel world to the one we are watching. The sound mixing people’s moaning and Bouhafa’s harps, synths, and exotic sounds complement each other to escalate the tension. We fear not what we watch but also what we hear. The imminence of risk is always present. Aïnouz tries to emphasize it by placing animal images to create macabre symbols. The dangerous roads are glued together with donkey frames to portray the non-natural sense of things.
At the same time, the neo-noir is the glory and downfall of the film. In the third act, the story needs more energy to continue the interest in the crime mystery. Dayana and Heraldo want to leave together for São Paulo, but there is not enough focus on the tension here. However, the leading trio carries the last part with their outstanding acting. Iago Xavier is charismatic and energetic, making the viewer cheer for his character. Nataly Rocha imposes nuances in Dayana. At the same time, she is fragile and manipulative. And Rocha transmits that through her look and body language. Assunsação portrays a typical man who migrated from the south to the northeast of the country and considers himself a superior race. There is disgust and violence on his face.
The conclusion may feel anti-climatic. It breaks the rhythm Aïnouz builds throughout its duration. However, there are enough engaging moments to leave Motel Destino on a positive note. There is the construction of a neo-noir mixed with the intense sexuality of movies that would be produced in the last century. Aïnouz returns from a bittersweet work with Firebrand and presents a film that dialogues with his filmography. It exhales the northeast of Brazil, his repertoire, and references. It combines the masterful works of Louvart and Bouhafa that aggregate texture to what is heard and seen.
The ending may be bittersweet due to the last twenty half-baked minutes, but Motel Destino is a ride to inner Brazil, where there is plenty to explore and extraordinary stories to perform on the screen.
Motel Destino is now playing in limited theaters.
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