Hotel Coolgardie

Hotel Coolgardie is a fascinating, eye-opening, and at times disturbing documentary released in 2016. It is an unvarnished exploration of the cultural dynamics in the remote gold-mining town of Coolgardie in Western Australia, made even more intriguing due to the fresh outsider perspective of two young Finnish backpackers, Nicolina and Stephanie, and their interactions with the local clientele at their place of employment, the Denver City Hotel.

Hotel Coolgardie is a rather unique movie. It is equal parts travelogue, observational comedy, and social experiment, which highlights the strength of the human spirit and the lengths to which people will go in pursuit of experience, connection, and in this case, financial survival. It also provides an unflinching view of masculinity, resilience, and acceptance that's often missing from more mainstream movies.

The film starts as Nicolina and Stephanie, who begin as starry-eyed foreigners, land in Australia with the anticipation of an adventure. At the center of their journey is their stint working at the Denver City Hotel, the only pub in the isolated one-horse town, where they were obliged to take work after falling victim to a robbery in Bali.

At the Denver City Hotel, the women are immediately introduced as the “new girls” to an almost entirely male patronage of miners and laborers. They swiftly find themselves stuck between dealing with the coarse, rough banter of their customers, and the more logistical challenges of living and working in a place that's worlds apart from their previous experiences and comfort zones.

Directed by Pete Gleeson, the film documents their 3-month long exploits, showcasing their development from naive foreigners to hardened workers. It carefully presents the differing cultural norms, beliefs, and attitudes of both the travelers and their distinctly Australian clientele, which are often the cause of friction and misunderstanding.

The film’s primary antagonist appears in the form of Peter Coffey, a grizzled regular at the hotel. Coffey is a complex character. He's at times a father figure but also can be occasionally overstepping the boundaries of acceptable behavior, which makes for uneasy viewing.

Hotel Coolgardie stands out particularly because of its verité style of filmmaking, practically raw and devoid of any larger-than-life cinematic tropes. It's a study of the human condition in an isolated part of the world. The drama, tension, and comic relief all arise organically from the characters’ interactions and real-life experiences.

The shots of the arid, desolate landscape which frame the film serve a dual purpose. On one hand, they portray the bleak reality of life in a remote, harsh environment, and on the other, they emphasize the girls' isolation, and the tremendous challenge they are undertaking, both physically and emotionally. This plays a significant role in shaping the viewers' understanding of the lead characters and the depth of their journey.

However, Hotel Coolgardie will also make you chuckle – at the purely Australian sayings, the outlandish personalities, the girls' bemusement at their odd surroundings, and the camaraderie that slowly develops among the hotel's patrons. It looks beyond the stereotypes to paint a complex, vivid picture of life in a country town, warts and all.

But above all, Hotel Coolgardie is a testament to the courage, resilience, and adaptability of the human spirit. Even in the face of adversity, language barriers and culture shock, the film's subjects manage to find their footing and form connections, ever hopeful for a better tomorrow.

Visually compelling with its stark cinematography in an almost forgotten part of Australia, sagacious and revealing in its narrative, Hotel Coolgardie is a cultural examination that unfolds progressively — a story about boundaries, adaptation, and exploring uncharted territories that challenge and mold you. It's imperative viewing for those on both sides of the bar – the observers and the observed.