Hot Milk

After the credits roll, Hot Milk leaves you with the strange taste of over-boiled milk-bitter and lacking something essential.

*** The protagonist's journey is shaped by her interactions with those around her, particularly in her tumultuous relationship with her mother and her complicated love life.

Yet, despite these emotional dynamics, the film feels disjointed, as if the narrative lacks a clear purpose.

The script, unfortunately, falls short. Information is doled out sparingly, making the plot feel underdeveloped. Potentially intriguing parallel stories are introduced but never fully explored. The ending, too, seems forced, attempting to provoke an emotional response but ultimately feeling hollow.

*** On the bright side, the film benefits from a strong performance from Irish actress Fiona Shaw, whose portrayal brings depth to her character. Additionally, the photography shines, with stunning shots of the Mediterranean sun and sea.

Hot Milk is a film that truly shines when it comes to its visual storytelling. The cinematography is one of its strongest assets, with a variety of creative shots and angles that draw the viewer in and create a unique atmosphere throughout. While the storyline can be a bit odd and at times even confusing, the film's visuals do a lot to clarify the emotions and themes at play. The director's use of imagery often speaks louder than the dialogue, making the film feel more like an experience than a straightforward narrative. Although the plot sometimes meanders and leaves questions unanswered, the strong visual direction keeps things interesting and engaging. The performances are solid, and the mood is consistently intriguing, even if the story doesn't always make perfect sense. Overall, Hot Milk is a film that's worth watching for its artistic approach and memorable style, earning a solid 7 out of 10 stars.

With a strange illness, Rose (Fiona Shaw) and her daughter embark on a journey to the Spanish coast to find a cure, and along the way the daughter Sofia (Emma Mackey) discover another reality far from her controlling mother.

I watched this simply because I have a thing for Emma Mackey, who looks very like Margot Robbie, but prettier.

But even that draw could not encourage me to watch to the end of the film. It is so excruciatingly boring and pointless.

There's lots of nipples for no apparent reason, there's constant smoking cigarettes which is vile and off putting, there's a dog barking literally throughout the entire film, and there's a rude Ingrid (Vicky Krieps) who speaks so indistinctly and quietly that I had to turn subtitles on.

After 1 hour nothing had happened. People small talked about nothing, Rose's doctor made the most bizarre statements and asked ridiculous questions, Sofia smoked and showed nipples, Ingrid didn't really do anything, and I'm unsure why the doctor's daughter Julieta (Patsy Ferran) even had a part.

All in all it was lovely seeing Emma Mackey, she's always a pleasure to watch, but the film is absolutely coma inducing and doesn't have a point at all. I rated it a 2 and that's only because Emma Mackey was in it otherwise it would have been a 1.

I really don't understand the low ratings. This movie is so underrated that I am certain that it will be appreciated a lot more when it finds its audience very soon after the first weeks of its release.

The cinematography and music are very beautiful and emotionally captivating. The narrative is not linear, but, nevertheless, it keeps you interested until the very end.

I think everyone who deems himself to be a very attentive and introspective person will enjoy this movie very much.

There are some similarities to Sorrentino's Parthenope, for example, that the protagonist studies anthropology, but her interest in human behavior is not only limited to the theoretical aspects of said subject, but also to the practicalities of its application, which is directed very subtly, and, sometimes, also quite intense.

I don't want to spoil the plot, which is very minimalistic, but not in the least less interesting or dense, quite the contrary, there is a lot to unpack, especially psychologically.

If you like to watch movies in an open and experiential way (and for the vibes; I almost started smoking for that matter, lol), and you are also keen to, maybe, untie some of your own emotional inner knots, you will most definitely enjoy this innocently passionate and painfully life-affirming movie.

A young woman and her wheelchair bound mother travel to Spain to seek treatment for the mother's possibly psychosomatic condition. Whilst there the daughter meets and starts a lesbian relationship with another young woman. Writer/director Rebecca Lenkiewicz's 2024 feature film adaptation of Deborah Levy's novel is, one assumes, a partly symbolic relationship drama about families and memories and the marks they leave, both physical and otherwise. An Anglo/Greek co-production with Greece standing in for Spain, it's a fairly restrained drama about coping with pain and loss, and forms of entrapment, with it's share of physical manifestations - wheelchairs, jellyfish marks. Although not too bad it could be a hard sell to a mass audience.