Motel Destino (2024) Movie Review: A Beguiling, Neon-lit Web of Sex, Lies, and Video Surveillance

The opening sequences of Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz’s films are, for the most part, composed of immaculate static shots of nature—a detailed look into the place that his characters inhabit—as if to imply some sort of geographic determinism. In the particular case of “Motel Destino” (2024), the bordering red cliffs could signify the hardened, rough edges of its protagonist; while the occasional pops of lush green vegetation found in this arid land may represent the resilience and mutability of his character; and the brightly turquoise waters that ever so gently bathe the shore may very well comment on his pathological need for affection as he was abandoned by his father, abused by his step-father and neglected by his mother.

But perhaps most prominently, the blistering sunlight suggests the hot-headed temperament of everyone in this coastal town. If bodies aren’t drenched in sweat due to the extreme heat of the region’s climate, then they are heavily transpiring because of their uncontrollable inner fire, and its physical manifestation, sex.

For the naked eye, the paradisiac shores of Ceará may seem like the perfect idyll for a vacation getaway. However, only those permanently living in this state know there is a corroding darkness simmering right underneath the breathtaking beauty of its natural landscape. Heraldo (played by newcomer Iago Xavier), the kind-hearted thug at the center of this story, is one such local who is well aware of the grim reality of this place.

It’s why he longs to one day escape these fringes and move to the city of São Paulo to work in a garage, leaving his thieving ways behind. But his dream of a better future outside this seaside town is obstructed by the local drug lord Bambina (Fabuona Liper), who will only allow him to leave once he repays his debt to her. To do that, he is tasked alongside his older brother to kill a presumably powerful French man who owes her money.

Dispatching the Frenchy is not impossible, but it is a job for, at the very least, two people since he always has bodyguards on him. So when the libidinous Heraldo succumbs to his bodily appetites the night before the assassination attempt—sexually engaging with a woman and falling asleep after their exhausting night of passion—he seals his brother’s fate.

Upon waking up the next morning and realizing his fling has silently left, stealing every cent he had in his wallet, he rushes to the appointed place, but it is too late, as an ambulance has already arrived at the crime scene to pick up the corpse of his fatally-wounded brother. Good thing Heraldo had some fun in the opening minutes of the film because he will be haunted by the guilt of having tangentially killed his brother, and pursued by Bambina’s other petty robbers so he pays for his fuck-up.

Having no money or place where to go, he decides to head back to the joint he stayed at a few hours before. This is the titular Motel Destino, a dingy establishment that offers cozy accommodations at any time of the day or night for people looking to fuck—sex toys included in their affordable fee—owned by a not-so-happily married couple, Elias (Fabio Assunção) and Dayana (Nataly Rocha). Feverish love-making happens at all times in this place, with echoing moans reverberating non-stop through the fluorescent red rooms and long corridors that make up the building.

To quickly refer back to Aïnouz’s use of setting as an extension of characters, it can’t be distinguished whether the audible sex noises are an expression of ecstatic pleasure or excruciating suffering. These conflicted emotions, often happening at once, are found in Heraldo and the marriage that welcomes him into their lives as a type of surrogate son. Their backstories suggest that to them, both of these feelings, pleasure and pain, are not mutually exclusive, but in fact, may even be interlinked.

Once Elias and Dayana are introduced, the story that began as a runaway crime drama quickly morphs into a murky erotic thriller, as their dynamic adds the interpersonal conflict that will have Heraldo, once again, become a victim of his primal urges. This a trademark of the genre—a naive, young man is highly dexterous with what’s between his legs, but doesn’t seem to have much inside his cranium. Aïnouz knows this, and he relishes in anticipation of the dangerous liaison to come, having Heraldo and Dayana engage in foreplay before they surrender to one another.

Due to the duplicitous nature of the genre, its female protagonists are by default portrayed as cold-blooded femme fatales—seductresses that seek to manipulate men for their own ulterior motives only to later betray them, among the most iconic ones being Barbara Stanwyck in “Double Indemnity” (1944), Lana Turner in “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1946), and Kathleen Turner in “Body Heat” (1981). This is where “Motel Destino” greatly differs, as the relationship that flourishes between Heraldo and Dayana, triggered by the physical abuse she endures at the hands of her drunken husband, has no pretense, but genuine affection.

Love triangles never end on good terms, not even when consented (ménage à trois). A fight between the two parties competing for the affection of their mutual flame is expected. And the imminent danger of Heraldo’s sexcapade raises the tension as much as the heat, which is only rivaled by the intense neon lights that drown every damned soul that places a foot into the motel. Earlier this year, Luca Guadagnino’s sports-based threeway “Challengers” (2024) offered a purely suggestive approach to this kind of tempestuous love story. Aïnouz’s take, on the other hand, goes for an uninhibited presentation akin to Ira Sachs’ smoldering affair “Passages” (2023), never withholding the carnality and raw intensity of making love, especially when driven by blazing lust.

Towards its resolution, “Motel Destino” abandons the more daring qualities that gave it a distinction from other films of its ilk, and instead becomes a prime example of full-on romanticism—offering hope amidst the despair through some truly puzzling form of deus ex machina—not dissimilar to the director’s previous film, Cannes Official Competition entry “Firebrand” (2023), an uptight corset drama that saw a woman caged in her own privilege, impotent to escape the tyranny of King Henry VIII or to reform the patriarchal system from the inside out, out-live her husband’s reign of terror.

Regardless of Heraldo’s fateful escape from the gates of hell, trauma will continue to torment him in the same way that the ghost of José Wilker’s ne’er-do-well Vadinho bedeviled Sônia Braga’s devoted house-wife Floripides in Bruno Barreto’s glorious sex comedy “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” (1976). His final confession is a literal embodiment of the idea that you can take a person out of a place, but you cannot take said place out of the person—and by extension, the misfortunes lived there.

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Motel Destino (2024) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia, Letterboxd
The Cast of Motel Destino (2024) Movie: Iago Xavier, Nataly Rocha, Fábio Assunção
Motel Destino (2024) Movie Runtime: 1h 52m, Genre: Drama/Mystery & Thriller

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