MIKAL AND SMOKEY IN FLOPHOUSE AMERICA

MONICA STROMDAHL: FLOPHOUSE AMERICA (2025)

Tight quarters

Mikal was born and grew up in the very confined quarters of the cheap hotel where he lives, as this film begins, with his mother Tonya and father Jason. The Norwegian filmmaker Monica Strømdahl was in New York studying still photography when living in such hotels, known by the traditional derogatory term "flophouse," led her to meet this little family and gain their confidence to make this debut documentary. An article in Deadline suggests Mikal collaborated thinking if Tonya and Jason saw Monica's film they'd wake up and change their lives. Alas, that does not happen and only a tragic accident leads to escape toward the end of the three years covered here, which starts when Mikal is twelve. The director waited till he was eighteen and gave his consent to release the finished film.

This documentary of a small family living in poverty and alcoholism is at moments very hard to watch and it cannot be recommended to a general audience. It is for the few who look for deep dives into harsh social issues. But it is a worthy film, and in its strange way a beautiful one, due to its child protagonist's pluck and survival skills and his family's shared love. Jason is a survivor and has spirit. He is also articulate and at one point shows signs of being a poet. The room and bathroom have no kitchen and the dishes have to be washed in the bathtub. Tonya is a continual drunk, never leaving the hotel and lying around day and night in T shirt and panties. Jason goes out to work but drifts into alcohol when he comes home. Mikal goes to school, where he is doing poorly - understandable since he lives in such a depressing and claustrophobic environment. His sleeping area is separated from his parents' only by a flimsy curtain.

Mikal gets nagged by both parents for not doing homework and escaping into a video game. He resists when Jason nags him to wash the dishes piled up in the bathtub. Okay, Mikal says, and gives Jason a math problem from school and says, you do this problem, and I'll do the dishes. When Jason admits he can't do it, Mikal smiles broadly - it's the happiest he is in the whole film. They hug, and both share in doing the dishes in the bathtub.

That sequence reveals the tone of Flophouse America. There is plenty of bickering and strong language, but "I love you" is a sentence often heard. Jason and Mikal argue, but they also hug and touch - which is fortunate, since they are living on top of each other. Mikal also cuddles with their pet cat, Smokey.

In another strong and memorable sequence Mikal says this situation is making him crazy, and he should be in an insane asylum. He goes into a kind of rage, is ready to explode, and he grabs a plastic laundry hamper and bangs it over and over onto the floor. Jason says he understands this, and that Mikal can leave if he has to. He addresses his son sometimes as "sir". and "man." While this is inappropriate for a pre-teen boy, it also reveals the father to be respectful toward his son, even while he is critical sometimes and calls him names. Considering the circumstances, mother, father, and son show restraint, not descending into cruelty or violence.

But the squalor and misery of the situation are oppressive, grim, and claustrophobic. Sometimes Monica's camera shows scatterings of objects here and there in the room, the unwashed dishes, the poor little cat. Mikal is a pale, weak looking boy, and usually looks downcast and tired. Late in the film when he and Jason are moving things out of the room, Jason, taller now and with a deepened voice, says "Sorry I'm not macho."

One German review (listed on IMDb) thinks all this is false, and suspects altered scenes or scenes restaged for the camera. It could be complained that while we frequently see Mikal taking refuge huddled out in the hallway, we never see him at school or Jason at work. What is clear is that this isn't "fly on the wall" filmmaking, because you can't disappear in such small quarters. Monica nonetheless succeeds in disappearing. She's there and not there, like Nicolas Philibert in his 2002 elementary school documentary To Be and to Have, and the fact that I am reminded of one of my favorite documentaries of the last two-plus decades says something about Flophouse America..

Flophouse America, 80 mins., premiered at Movies That Matter (Netherlands) Mar. 22 and received honorable mention at CPH:DOX (Copenhagen) Mar. 24, 2025, showing also at half a dozen other European doc fests . Its North American premiere is set for DOC NYC Nov. 16, 2025 6:30 PM at Village East by Angelika, 181-189 2nd Ave.
Q&A to follow with director Monica Strømdahl. The film will also be available on the festival's virtual platform Nov. 17-30.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.