In a near-future society ruled by sentient AI, a private eye who's investigating a murder case encounters a rebel group that's capable of undermining the digital overlord.
Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska
Cast: Andrzej Konopka, Noomi Rapace, Reika Kirishima
Genre: Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated R for strong violent content, gore, graphic nudity, sexual content and brief language.
Runtime: 1h 41m
Review:
Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Hot Spot starts off like a solid cyberpunk amalgam of The Matrix and Mad Max paired with striking visuals but whatever energy it starts with quickly fizzles as reveals a meandering, muddled plot that borders on absurdity at various points during its runtime. Konopka’s garish visual style gives the film a psychedelic energy that should make the entire thing much more entertaining than it is. Plot points are dictated at various points during the film which makes for more than a few moments of clunky exposition that doesn’t come close to explaining what’s going on outside of the most basic aspect of the AI totalitarian dystopia on display. All other bits of oddity thrown on screen like Andrzej Konopka’s detective, Jan 623, generally bizarre wardrobe and look, man eating pet worm, or his partner randomly having elf ears aren’t given even a passing line of explanation. Konopka seems dead set to make things odd just for the sake of being odd with these choices, amounting to nothing in the grand scheme of the story. The script has plenty of ideas bouncing around but it doesn’t have any conception of how to form these assorted themes and concepts into a cohesive whole. While the film has a decidedly advent garde looks and feel there barely enough to make any of it engaging enough for you to care about what’s going on, making the whole thing an increasingly difficult slog as the film drags on with very little actually happening. The primary cast of Andrzej Konopka, Noomi Rapace and Reika Kirishima have all clearly bought into the director’s vision and seem primed and ready to do anything and everything she asks of them. It’s shame that they’re given virtually nothing to work with outside of the most abstract bits of a concept, none of which is fully realized. The cast generally seems desperate to be given something substantial or meaningful to work with. It all makes Hot Spot feel like a hollow, wasted attempt at a film that’s so incoherent and incomplete that it leaves you wondering how it all went so wrong during the creation of the project.
D-
