The Hottest State
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Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

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  • Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno
  • Summary: Days before his 21st birthday, William (Mark Webber), an actor, meets and quickly falls madly in love with Sara (Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno), a seductive yet elusive singer/songwriter. The film follows William from a Lower East Side tenement to a Mexican hotel room, to a snowbound weekend in Connecticut, and to a sweltering homecoming in the hottest state of all--Texas--in the pursuit of Sara. His stubborn and sweetly innocent quest to find someone who loves him as much as he loves her may not lead to happiness, but surely leads to newfound maturity. (THINKFilm)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 20
  3. Negative: 4 out of 20
  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Linda Stasi
    75
    Could be an overwrought mess if it were in less capable hands. But Webber and Moreno are so good, it's hard to believe they're not really deeply and meaningfully in lust.
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    60
    Hawke quite capably taps into the bittersweet complexities of young, love-struck idiocy.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    In The Hottest State, Hawke uses fairly standard childhood motivations for his unhappiness and reveals too little real interest in the Sara character.
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Scott Schueller
    38
    This self-important movie can't save itself from being disheartening.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 1 out of 4
  1. Dave
    9
    I generally don't like young-romance films, but this one blew me awy. Great acting all around. Ditto the direction and even the soundtrack. I think the critics were just too impatient waiting for somebody to get shot.… Expand
  2. TylerS.
    7
    The critic's reviews are a little harsh. Fans of Hawke's movies won't be disappointed but people who tend to dislike scripts with self-awareness (for instance, like many of Linklater's films) probably won't enjoy it. The soundtrack is amazing.… Expand
  3. DerekB.
    7
    It's a flawed movie, but a cute one. The dialogue gets cheesy at times, and the characters don't develop as much as you'd like them to, but you do sympathize with them after a while - even if you're not really supposed to. Not nearly as horribly as some critics say, that's for sure...… Expand
  4. ChadS.
    3
    "Do you speak English?" asks William(Mark Webber) when Sarah(Catalina Sandino Moreno) sits mutely at the bar as she considers whether to follow him home or not. Later in "The Hottest State", Sarah could ask William the same thing as he whines and pleads for the budding singer-songwriter to love him back. On the night they first met, she tells William that he's not very complicated. Well, neither is she. Two words: ice princess. And William, one word sums him up: idiot. For nearly two hours, the ice princess and idiot talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. When they break up, William becomes insufferable in his unwillingness to take a hint and get lost. The dialogue in "The Hottest State" is so banal, you'll never complain about Woody Allen again. In a film, it's more interesting to hear intellectuals rather than airheads speak. Good photography, though. Texas does look like the hottest state.… Expand

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