Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: HOTEL POSEIDON [Fantasia Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]

The essence of "Hotel Poseidon" is a story bathed in myth but also the natural. Like "The Tempest" in some ways, Dave, the lead character is trapped in the innerworkings of his own mind where he is both the hero and the victim. The movie starts off inconspicuously enough with an elaborate and creative opening sequence before deconstructing for a good 15 minutes before building back to a crescendo. Whether it is a decent into madness or simply the hotel represents his mind in its disjointed way is hard to say. Structures of guilt and disorganization are rampant in addition to many rooms that are seemingly empty, overgrown or filled with certain people. The main hall is populated by would-be friends that seemingly don't do the best thing for Dave. One party sequence as the lead actor drifts from one space to another is haunting in a way set to different auspices of techno music. The aftermath of this scene has a Lynchian roadhouse aspect to it.

Everyone is bathed in an unnaturally pale make-up face which could be considered representative of isolation or even death. The wall in that way is never really broken but instead bathed deeper into metaphor especially with the descent into an almost primal forest structure before reflecting back in an almost Venus De Milo image( which might mean something else entirely). The aspect that Dave finds his other's attraction to him both desirable but repulsive is an interesting dichotomy...especially when his parents (really just a mother and would-be stepfather) are accusing him on mismanaging the hotel (which is closed anyway). Again these could all be and most surely are constructs of his mind as is the hotel itself. Dave begins and starts in the same position he began, as if he never left...and that in a way is the genius of the film, (not easy mind you) but an intriguing journey nonetheless. B+

By Tim Wassberg