Now here's an interesting trailer. The Motel Life seems to be selling one film and sneaks in some unusual scenes that might feel a little out of place to begin with. The other oddity about it is that it stars Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch, and its Dorff that seems to be delivering the surprises.

He's been feeling somewhat of a resurgence in his career. It seems as though there's been a slow rise in the number of films he's been appearing in and in their quality. Here it looks to be another step upwards and early comments suggest his performance is a strong point of the film.

The Motel Life is the story of two brothers who have had all the worst luck dealt to them from early on in their lives and have struggled together through it all. The film sees them trying to hide the evidence of an accident that one of them caused, a fatal accident, and deal with the consequences of the accident, of trying to outrun it, and of their own lives, all the while being held together by their powerful brotherly bond. There's a lot more to it than that and the book on which the film is based, written by Willy Vlautin ( / ), gets some great write-ups.

Not only does it star Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch but it also stars Dakota Fanning and Kris Kristofferson.

The film was first seen, according to the story in First Showing, in the Rome Film Festival last year with two festival outings scheduled in America this year at Chicago and Philadelphia, it also says that there's a video on demand and cinematic, although I suspect very limited, release coming in early November.

Here's the trailer for The Motel Life:

What did you think? I'm quite surprised by Stephen Dorff these days and I wonder if he's on the verge of slipping into the mainstream again, he's certainly working hard enough.

I most recently saw him in Brake (Filmstalker review) at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and I was surprised at how good he was and likewise the film. Oh there were problems with the plot but being able to hold our attention and build suspense and tension while having someone stuck in the boot of a car was surprisingly good, plus I was genuinely surprised by Dorff's performance.

I remember watching something a little while before that, it escapes me what, and again came away feeling surprised at his performance and all the time thinking of his character in Blade. Was that where things changed for his career? I do remember him in Immortals and World Trade Center, but apart from that I think it was Blade that I last really remember him in.