One thing for sure in this film we are now in the stage of science fiction of post tech noir. The battle against tech is over. All are now under the leadership of tech. “Hot Spot” is all about post tech noir. We lost to tech, but kept the fashion. We didn’t lose our world, but we possibly lost our reality. The film is intentionally without clarity or cohesiveness. There are no definitive conclusions or answers. Is it an alternate world? Is it all in a simulation? Are we even on Earth? The setting is abandoned open air industrial buildings in the style of brutalism. “Nowhere in the future” the film proclaims. A dystopian world where all submit to all invasion and authoritarian A.I. named the Head.  It’s a fascist dictatorship in a harsh desolate world.  No one is free. 

Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska (the Lure) the film is centered around a detective named Jan 631. A murder occurred at a base after a group of refugees arrived. He’s assigned by head to solve it. The murder is gruesome and displayed. Someone is displeased. Among the refugees is a woman that is a witch that possibly cripples the social dynamic structure. After solving the case the detective world becomes undone in a surreal cascade.  

  There is a rich compelling story somewhere in it. A story of no sure thing about privacy anymore. Jan’s son says in it in a somber tone, “I miss loneliness.”  Instead the film takes time away for mood setting and slow driving solar cars. It’s a short film script in a full feature film. The film demands to be more arthouse than Sci-fi. It’s a series of events rather than a transparent developed story. Technically, the film stunned me.  There is a blend of eighties nostalgia where tech noir originated with music cues and costumes, but no clarity on story is not clever nor enhances the film, it muddles the area of art for art sake that dares to clarify a theme. The cemented tone is all that is clear. If that is the intent then the film has no depth to it and is all dressing. The costuming and performance of Andrzei Konopa as the Detective Jan is the most captivating in this. He constantly demands our attention thoroughly. He’s in about ninety percent of it.  Konopa has steadily been a reliable actor and now with this seemed primed to headline a feature. His charisma and allure is one of the driving forces in this. 

There is great conversation to be had with this film that is lost in its mood setting and filler scenes. A stark notion that under the fascist authoritative A.I.  identity and individuality is lost, real tangible emotion is lost- a conversion that existence is not something…..authentic under a cumbersome authority. Wild and free is something lamented in this but with such a murky themes and no real flushed out story nor character development that we can only guess what the attempt is to convey other than we are now in a rudderless struggle of survival in post tech noir 7/10