Hot Milk

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.

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.

Actually not really - it is however the title of this movie and the book it is based on ... so no pun intended as always. Hot ... stuff maybe? Well I'll go into that a bit later, but I am not sure you could use that term either. I did not know the book before watching the movie (still haven't read it, but am aware of it now obviously). So take what I write with that in mind (especially if you have read it).

What you might know then: the movie will be about a young woman and her mother - and finding her role ... not just in their relationship, but in society ... when should we let go? Continue to roll on with life? And can we move ... on? No pun intended with this either (again not sure how the book ends, but the movie ... well you won't forget that for sure).

So while she is looking for her identity (amongst other things, like her father, her sexuality and so forth) ... she gets to know a German woman ... now there is nudity in this movie. But if this is a make or break thing for you: there is really not much of it here. And I have to say this is one of the things I do not like - when movies do that. The whole holding the sheet as if their life depended on it - than "choreograph" holding hands and arms to cover up ... the upper body. Now I understand there is vulnerability - but for crying out loud: wear a shirt or a bra! There is not even a reason (as in character development or issue) that would warrant that thing that kind of took me out of the movie.

Now as you can tell it wasn't to a degree that I couldn't like the movie. The acting in this is superb (the things above not taken into account) - the pacing might be more of a problem for some people ... and that there does not seem to be a specific goal .. something we work towards ... or walk towards ... how far will it go? Well ... society will judge (and you too ... probably)

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.

This does come to quite an head in the last five minutes and there's a solid performance from Fiona Shaw at times too, but otherwise I struggled to see much point in this rather shallow drama. "Rose" (Shaw) hasn't been able to walk for almost twenty years so has mortgaged her house so she can attend a specialist clinic run by "Gomez" (Vincent Perez). She is accompanied by her daughter "Sophia" (Emma Mackey) who, whilst she obviously loves her mother, is clearly a bit fed up being her constant carer. I think that fairly swiftly we can deduce something of the nature of the older woman's problems, but that isn't really the crux of this story. That has more to do with "Sophia" and her relationship with "Ingrid" (Vicky Krieps) whose enigmatic personality and character entrance and infuriate her, even more so when her friend "Matty" (Yang Gael) shows up to muddy the already pretty confused waters. With this uninteresting scenario bubbling along lethargically and Shaw just complaining about the water the whole time, we are now largely left to furnish the story with our own interpretation of what we think is most likely going on and then, certainly in my case, ask just why I ought to care one way or the other. The raffia-mafia have had a hand in the characterisation of "Ingrid" and I'm afraid that even though it's filmed on a lovely Greek beach I just couldn't get into it. It's had some decent effort put into the production, but it will look fine on a winter's evening on the television. Not so much hot, more tepid.