MOTEL

Christian Blackwood’s fascination with the open road has led him to visit some interesting places and even more interesting people, several of whom are the subjects of this unique documentary. It’s a road movie set just off the road, at the type of unassuming overnight lodging most travelers take for granted. The director’s natural curiosity enables him to separate uncommon individuals (mostly women) from their otherwise common surroundings: a trio of owner/managers in Santa Fe; the wives and girlfriends of men behind bars in Florence, Arizona (including one touching May/December romance); and (best of all) the eccentric dancer who, single-handedly, revived the old Amargosa Opera House in the semi-ghost town of Death Valley Junction, California. The film is a reminder that everyone has a story to tell, and those related here are too unusual to be anything but the truth.