THE STORY – In a near-future society ruled by sentient A.I., a private eye investigates a murder case only to discover a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord. As the detective’s identity slowly unravels, his world enters a state of hypnotic meltdown.
THE CAST – Andrzej Konopka, Noomi Rapace & Reika Krishima
THE TEAM – Agnieszka Smoczyńska (Director) & Robert Bolesto (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
Describing Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s “Hot Spot“ as a story is difficult. The techno-dystopian sci-fi thriller involves a hive-mind-like AI network called The Head, a brash detective named Djonny (Andrzej Konopka) investigating a murder at a refugee camp, and a refugee named Rana (Noomi Rapace) accused of being a “cyber witch,“ whose people refuse to connect to The Head on religious grounds, and that’s a whole lot of story elements already. And yet, for all the words it takes to describe what the film is about, it only takes one word to describe what the film is: Uncompromising. It is abundantly clear while watching “Hot Spot“ that Smoczyńska did not dumb down her vision even slightly, and that if she accepted any “studio notes,“ they were solely in service of making the film weirder.
Call it the Coralie Fargeat Effect: “The Substance“ is perhaps the most uncompromising female-driven film of the 2000s, and it was both a critical and commercial success despite Universal dumping it like it was radioactive when they saw Fargeat’s final vision. Of course, Focus Features (owned by Universal) would want to replicate that film’s success for themselves, and Smoczyńska, whose 2015 punk mermaid musical “The Lure“ has become something of a cult classic in the years since its release, seemed poised to follow in Fargeat’s footsteps. She certainly has done that, in more ways than one, but “Hot Spot“ never comes together in the same way that “The Substance“ did. Smoczyńska’s idiosyncratic vision is far harder to grasp than Fargeat’s, largely because of the complex sci-fi world she has created. On top of that, Smoczyńska pointedly refuses to explain nearly anything about that world, simply presenting it as it appeared in her head and leaving the audience to figure out what it all means. To make matters worse, she also forces the international ensemble to speak their lines in heavily accented English and creates a soundscape that constantly distorts their voices through filters, making the dense expository dialogue difficult to hear, let alone understand.
In a pre-recorded message that played before my preview screening, Smoczyńska admonished the audience not to use traditional logic when watching the film, to instead give yourself over to the feeling of it, to confront and probe the fears that pervade our modern lives instead of looking for answers in the film. There’s nothing wrong with that style of filmmaking, but if your film isn’t going to provide answers, the questions it asks need to be compelling enough that people will mull them over for hours, if not days, afterward. The questions “Hot Spot“ asks are so vaguely defined that you’ll forget them before the end credits finish. That’s especially disappointing because Smoczyńska’s world has lots of fascinating elements, nearly all of which go underexplored.
Opening text informs us that drought has brought the world to its knees, with most people connecting to The Head in order to survive. How exactly does it help them survive? Connecting to it provides access to “the only community with a continuous supply of water and electricity”. Everyone must take a “jellybean“ every day in order to maintain connection to The Head, as disconnection can cause errors in the system which lead to problems in your body, including a fatal head explosion. You can communicate with others on The Head telepathically, show them what you’re seeing, and see what they’re seeing. We’re barely introduced to Djonny before he sets off for the refugee camp, which is so remote that he must take a car, a train, and a bicycle to get there. The refugees there refuse to connect to The Head, but they have only three more days before they won’t be given a choice if they want to stay. A refugee has been murdered in seemingly ritualistic fashion, and Djonny immediately suspects Rana, who stands still and stares directly at him, unmoving, while the other refugees move and sing in unison. Rana seemingly can hack into people’s minds, including Djonny’s and his wife Ayka’s (Reika Kirishima), a singer so talented her voice can disconnect people from The Head (again, how this works is never even hinted at).
Any one of these ideas would be a fascinating film to build around, but instead they all feel like world-building details that get brushed past in the setup and then become wildly important later. This doesn’t have to cause the narrative to fall apart. Still, Smoczyńska’s heart-first, logic-second style is incredibly difficult to apply to a dystopian near-future sci-fi world in which we follow a detective solving a murder. Mysteries don’t necessarily have to follow logic, and sci-fi worlds often operate on their own rules, but while Smoczyńska has included lots of signifiers of mid-2020s malaise (the presence of a massive AI system connecting us all, government surveillance, global warming, violence, the repeated use of the phrase “thank you for your attention to this matter”), she doesn’t do much with them. Robert Bolesto’s screenplay is shrouded in too many layers of narrative obfuscation to make meaningful connections, and Smoczyńska’s direction, while stylish, doesn’t help with clarity. She and cinematographer Jakub Kijowski have conjured up some striking images, and the design elements fully immerse you in this world. The sound design is fascinating; while the mixing has clarity issues, the sound effects work is remarkable, with various electronic sounds constantly filling any dead space. It creates a wholly unique soundscape, one that likely does as much storytelling as the dialogue does, if you have the ear (and the patience) for it.
The problem is that “Hot Spot” doesn’t reward the patience you do put into it. Smoczyńska has created a world full of fascinating elements and ideas, but the story connecting them all together doesn’t actually connect them all strongly enough. In the moments when Smoczyńska really lets loose and lets the film’s visuals and sonically adventurous score build to a crescendo of feeling, the film has a hypnotic pull that beguiles. Still, as soon as the characters start speaking, the spell is broken. When the film fully embraces its trippy qualities, you can see the potential for something uniquely strange and successful, but by refusing to compromise her vision, Smoczyńska has blocked audiences from fully engaging with her work.
