3/12 ForReel Score | 1/5 Stars

Before our Beyondfest screening of Hot Spot, director Agnieszka Smoczyńska encouraged us to not worry about following the plot. Her film hinges more on a dreamlike existential dread that is meant to be more intuited than comprehended. In other words - “don’t try to understand it, feel it.” There’s only one problem with that philosophy. When a film expects you to coast on vibes alone, said vibes have to be present. Hot Spot presents itself as a delirious vision of an AI dominated future, but to describe it with either of those two words would be a stretch. This is a cheap looking, intentionally obtuse and completely shallow provocation that is designed to frustrate and agitate. In that sense, it achieved its goal: nearly half of my audience, comprised of “down for anything” American Cinemateque members, appeared to walk out of the film.

Hot Spot takes place in a world controlled by a sentient AI being called “The Head.” This thing can tap into the subconscious to communicate psychically with its subjects and allows them to do the same with their loved ones. Naturally, it also has some fascist tendencies, directly broadcasting state sanctioned executions into citizens’ minds, including children. We follow detective Jan 623 (Andrzej Konopka) who is tasked with solving a murder case. The suspects are a group of rebel refugees led by Rana (Noomi Rapace), a woman believed to be a digital witch who is just as powerful as The Head itself. Jan 623 begins to slowly unravel as he starts to realize that both The Head and Rana have influence in his mind.

Not having a coherent story is one thing, but an absence of character is inexcusable. There is not a single person to attach ourselves to here. Andrzej Konopka’s performance is entirely vacant. He allegedly loves his family but none of that emotion comes through when he’s near them. It seems like a random man walked into a mother and son’s house. Jan 623 is not a particularly clever detective. The cause of all of these problems is very obvious and he plods along until he finally decides to pursue Rana more seriously. Speaking of Rana, Noomi Rapace needs a new agent. You can always count on her to be in whatever the worst indie film of the year is. She’s serviceable, but Rana’s characterization is also intentionally sparse. We know that she hates the system and is willing to fight, but that’s as much as she gives us. Jan’s wife Ayka (Reika Kirishima) has virtually identical motivations, minus the superpowers. These performances aren’t just stoic to fit the tone of the film. They are vacant. These actors are visibly confused by this material and they should be. It’s almost impossible to judge their work from a technical perspective because the material is so poor that I’d expect even the greatest actors of our time to be equally lost.

Smoczyńska intends to create a world oppressive and overstimulating enough to fill us with terror at the very possibility of its existence. The production value does not match her ambition. The city is overcome with torrential drought and yet still looks like the desert outside of Las Vegas. No inventive aesthetic choices or color grade, we’ve got a generally bright sky lighting bog standard homes and complexes. This should’ve had an aesthetic so over the top that it is repulsive to look at. Even if that was achieved through low tech homemade means, it would’ve gotten the job done. In fact, the worse it looked, the better. Instead, it has the appearance of a bad TV pilot. Meanwhile, the more surreal elements are often simple flashing lights and loud noises meant to simulate The Head’s oppressive acts of violation. It’s not scary, just annoying. The same goes for a horrifically rendered CGI-Creature who comes into play in the back half of the film. The reasons for this thing entering the story are nonsense and incorporate elements of an entirely different genre of horror that has nothing to do with the movie we’re otherwise seeing.

I can respect that Hot Spot is the exact movie Agnieszka Smoczyńska wanted to make. However, that does not override my disdain for her contempt against the audience. Genre movies like this should absolutely strive to be challenging from time to time. They should not feel like an arduous rorschach test with no satisfying thrills to make up for it. Dullness is Hot Spot’s biggest sin. If this is the future that truly lies ahead, it would not be boring. If you’re going to make a movie that makes me consider suicide as the only preventive measure, the least you could do is make me feel something before I go.

Movie Review: "Hot Spot" Is A Dystopian Nightmare of Hacky Indie Cinema