The Last Days of the San José
2004, NR, 89 min.
Directed by Liz Lambert, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring .

The hip appearance of Austin’s Hotel San José (that laidback motel across the street from the Continental Club on S. Congress) is a recently new development in that venue’s history. Until filmmaker Liz Lambert came along with dreams of renovation and bought the place, the San Jose was a rundown dive inhabited by trannies and junkies, and long-term tenants who gravitated toward society’s margins. For three years, Lambert struggled to get a bank loan and in the meantime became an involuntary landlord and voluntary documentarian of the intriguing personalities living in her motel. This film is the result.

This article appears in December 31 • 2004.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.