This is a beautifully made, involving film, but it would have been so much stronger with a bit of careful editing.
Comment
09/22/07
The Hottest State (2006)
35 %
Reviews Counted: 46 Fresh: 16 Rotten:30 Average Rating: 4.9/10
Consensus:
Despite strong performances and a unique style, The Hottest State is too self-conscious and pretentious to truly succeed.
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Synopsis: Young love has rarely been as exhilarating--and as painful--as it is in Ethan Hawke's THE HOTTEST STATE. The Oscar-nominated actor adapts his own novel for the screen in this romance set in New York City. When 20-year-old William (Mark Webber, BROKEN FLOWERS) meets Sara (Catalina Sandino... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Mark Webber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Laura Linney, Sonia Braga, Michelle Williams
Director: Ethan Hawke
Screenwriter: Ethan Hawke
Producer: Alexis Alexanian, Yukie Kito
Composer: Jesse Harris
Screenwriter: Ethan Hawke
Producer: Alexis Alexanian, Yukie Kito
Composer: Jesse Harris
Reviews
Though there are some nutty and offbeat moments in The Hottest State, these young characters fail to generate any chemistry or 'heated state,' despite their tender years and simmering hormones.
12/04/07
What's apparently deeply personal for Hawke winds up deeply torturous for the audience.
11/08/07
Everything we see is tinted by a rose-colored self-fondness, down to the perfectly mussed bedheads, the unusually capacious apartments, the lousy bar music that’s supposed to be really good.
09/22/07
The movie is crisply shot and obviously heartfelt, but search elsewhere if you want the same honesty Hawke displayed as an actor in 1995's Before Sunrise and its 2004 sequel Before Sunset.
09/21/07
[The two main characters] are in all honesty the least sympathetic and most egregiously boring romantic pair that I've seen onscreen in ages.
09/21/07
It’s a small film, it’s a mild recommendation, but I still think it’s worth checking out.
09/18/07
The passionate Mexican interlude, the Shakespearean pleas to yonder windows, and the naive, earnest pillow talk all melt into one self-indulgent, faux-hipstery soup.
09/14/07
It's nothing new, but [writer/director Ethan] Hawke captures some evocative textures and honest moments.
09/13/07
The main point I can extract from Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State is that even a peevish and self-centered young man is capable of feeling great anguish when his girlfriend dumps him.
09/07/07
Will the world be different, or their lives irrevocably changed, if they break up? I don't think so. Their tree falls in the forest, and nobody cares except the termites.
09/07/07
Top Critic
As a director Ethan Hawke has learned a great deal from his mentor, Richard Linklater.
09/07/07
The dialogue comes off as too carefully planned and too precious, and Webber's overly physical performance doesn't seem to match the character's insecurity.
09/06/07
[Director] Hawke's sincerity - especially in his terrific new film, The Hottest State -- is also his saving grace.
09/06/07
Ethan Hawke's film, based on the novel he wrote a decade ago, should come with a warning that it may cause bruising from heavy-handed dialogue.
09/06/07
A charming piece of sadness about love's all-consuming, confusing power and its ability to heal and wound only seconds apart.
09/06/07
If the words ''based on a semiautobiographical first novel'' don't send chills up your spine, how about ''adapted for the screen and directed by the author''?
08/29/07
Related Forums
Hottest State
by: abanana 8/22/07
by: abanana 8/22/07
Pictures
News
RT on DVD: Superbad is Unrated, Pirates of the Caribbean is Rated Arrrrr!
posted by Jen Yamato December 04, 2007
Avast, mateys! This week, pirates trawl the DVD shelves, and they come laden with booty -- bonus feature booty (Pirates...
posted by Jen Yamato December 04, 2007
Avast, mateys! This week, pirates trawl the DVD shelves, and they come laden with booty -- bonus feature booty (Pirates...
IGN RSS Feeds