TIFF 2009 Day 1: Suzana Amaral’s Hotel Atlantico

Exactly as the trailer proposes, this travelogue of a drifter/out of work actor who aimlessly heads to the countryside, goes off the beaten track. Suzana Amaral has a taste for the absurd, an appreciation for the bizarre, and not so much apathy for her lead player – a scruffy looking Júlio Andrade. It suits the film well, but like life, don’t look for some natural order or to make any sense of what unfolds. Hotel Atlantico is exactly like how one leaves a hotel room after a night of rough sex – in a state of disarray. I doubt that this will receive a domestic release here, but Brazilian-Latin American festivals will want to add this to their programs. In depth review soon.