Visions du Réel 2025: Flophouse America (dir. Monica Strømdahl) | Review
By turning her lens on Mikal’s family, a young American boy, and his parents, Monica Strømdahl documents the phenomenon of flophouse hotels – a result of the housing crisis that continues to plague American society.
In Flophouse America, Monica Strømdahl spent several months filming the chaotic daily life of Mikal, a boy around ten years old, and his parents, Jason and Tanya. The family lives year-round in a low-end motel, in a cramped room cluttered with dirty dishes, trash, and empty liquor bottles. The room’s only window is often covered by an opaque curtain. The boy lives on leftover fast food that his father brings home, and sugary drinks bought from the motel’s vending machine. When he is not at school, Mikal is often tasked with doing the dishes – in the bathtub of the adjoining bathroom, using leftover shampoo – while his mother, under the influence of alcohol, rambles and shouts at him. Jason works night shifts for a meager wage, and frequently returns home drunk, collapsing heavily onto the bed. In the midst of all this chaos, Mikal tries to grow and build himself. The days go by, each resembling the last, but Monica Strømdahl’s camera also captures moments of joy. A generous breakfast cooked by Jason. A game of Uno with Tanya. Laughs, and glimpses of love that shine through when his parents’ minds are not clouded by alcohol. Although she captures scenes marked by human misery, in which Mikal’s parents at times lose all sense of dignity, the director never lets her judgment show. Her gaze remains focused on Mikal himself, and on his hopes for a better future.
Most of the scenes take place inside the motel room. The setup is remarkable in itself: the director managed to film the family over the course of several months in this extremely tight space, without the subjects appearing to notice the camera. The use of space is handled with great precision. The director manages to make use of this narrow environment to develop her reflection on the family’s situation. One notable scene, for instance, shows the camera fixed on Mikal, curled up on the couch where he sleeps, wedged between the bed and the bathroom, while off-screen, his parents – under the influence of alcohol – belt out songs from their youth. The few shots filmed outside the room, much brighter, give the impression of a breath of fresh air in the boy’s life. While most of the film is shot in direct cinema, the director includes a few more stylized segments, which are no less compelling. At several points, we hear Mikal reciting, with determination, series of words, as if he were trying to release the tensions and frustrations building up inside him.
Flophouse America is part of a broader documentary project. A professional photographer, Monica Strømdahl has been interested since the mid-2000s in flophouse hotels and their residents, who – affected by the ongoing housing crisis – have no choice but to live year-round in these run-down motels with minimal comfort. In the case of Mikal’s family, we understand – through a few carefully selected shots – that Jason and Tanya fell into poverty and alcoholism when Mikal was very young. The boy’s unplanned birth seems to have accelerated the family’s financial struggles and the destructive spiral that followed.
Flophouse America premiered at CPH:DOX 2025 in the DOX:AWARD section, before screening in the Highlights section at Visions du Réel 2025. The film inevitably brings to mind Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, which also delves into the world of flophouse hotels and the forgotten people of the American dream, through the lens of fiction.
