The life of a UK football star takes an unexpected turn after landing in West Hollywood. Powell, a British sensation in his heyday playing in the English top flight for Norwich, has seen his UK audience, friends, and family disappear since 1981. THE LAST GUEST OF THE HOLLOWAY MOTEL pieces together Powell’s life as Powell himself narrates it and opens doors into a long abandoned past.
Directors Ramiel Petros and Nicholas Freeman’s documentary has many surprises, starting with the film’s background story. The filmmakers met Powell accidentally after many walks past The Holloway Motel. “The old man” aged 78 was its remaining guest and its manager. For twenty-five years, Powell had managed the Holloway Motel in West Hollywood, but he was now being evicted and forced to see his home turned into temporary accommodation for unhoused people. With the motel’s history and its main storyteller, the filmmakers believed they had secured the subject of their film, which evolved even further with the knowledge of Powell’s hidden homosexuality during his football career. The documentary’s final cut is Powell’s life; the contrast of a heterosexual-presenting UK football star against that of a gay man managing a motel in LA, and a story of an old man correcting some of his choices.
“Powell’s life compares to opening Pandora’s box, unveiling, almost, a fantasy-fiction drama.”
Powell’s life compares to opening Pandora’s box, unveiling, almost, a fantasy-fiction drama. The initial section emphasises Powell’s avoidance of his past. His friends in LA, in talking head interview format, admit not knowing about Powell’s life and family in the UK, a topic he never discussed. Erica, his close friend who assisted him in managing the motel, had accepted that Powell found a freedom in the US he could not have found in the UK. A picture of the motel manager has formed, but that of the young football player persists. Archival footage and photos of Powell from his time playing for Norwich show him as a very charismatic and loved man. He has not denied his success and career. From here, another grand narrative layer unfolds: the heightened homophobia of the football industry.
“The insertion of [former teammate Justin] Fashanu’s news and press articles contextualise the fear that, as a young and successful football player, one acquired for being outside the norm.”
The figure of Justin Fashanu, an notable UK football player and Powell’s teammate in Norwich, exemplifies the hatred and abusive reality towards gay men. Fashanu committed suicide in 1998 as a consequence of the rejection and despise he received for his sexual orientation. The insertion of Fashanu’s news and press articles contextualise the fear that, as a young and successful football player, one acquired for being outside the norm. Fashanu’s story opens the eyes to a very sad but real masculine toxicity without offering solutions or change. Seeing his life in danger made Powell lead a “regular” life. Footage and news of Powell marrying a woman and having two young daughters is who he forced himself to be in the 1970s. On the contrary, landing in the 1980s in the US, an era of liberation, sexual freedom, and gay rights, Tony was able to be reborn and meet David. From here, the documentary offers a moment recapturing Tony and David’s love story, but Tony’s life has even more in store. Tony flies back to the UK for the first time in forty five years.
Powell’s story and public speaking of his queerness is a testament to a wish to change the oppressive gender ideals living in the football sphere and start building a community in support of queer football players. Robbie Rogers, who co-produced the film and is a former queer footballer – only the third in the UK to come out – gives the film a further impetus to raise awareness on the stigmas, taboos, and pressure about “masculinity” in the football industry while also celebrating the joy and ecstasy of such a praised sport.