Title: Hot Water
MPA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Ramzi Bashour
Starring: Lubna Azabal, Daniel Zolghadri, Dale Dickey
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

What It Is: A college professor and mother (Azabal) is having a bit of trouble with her teenaged son (Zolghadri) and must equip him to move across the country to live with his father. One problem. There’s no way to get there except to drive, cross country. Now she must drive her son from the east coast over to Silicon Valley. Along the way the two of them will learn things about one another they had never known previously.

What We Think: I do love a good road movie. Most of the time. My main issues here stem from the relationship dynamics between our two main characters. They just don’t seem to have good enough chemistry. Likewise there are moments in the film that don’t feel like they’re in the right place, or feel wholly unnecessary. There was a lot here that could’ve worked and in moments it’s very good, but the direction is all over the place and the story, as mentioned, just sorta meanders. This can be a positive of a road movie, sometimes. Here it just leads to a film that drags a bit too much.

Our Grade: C-, It’s just not really all that good. It’s the type of film I wanted to like but it never at any point wowed me. Lubna Azabal is trying her best to drag this thing along and her performance is absolutely stellar. Daniel Zolghadri is also pretty good even if the chemistry isn’t what it should be. Dale Dickey, even if out of place, brings her A-game as always. Ramzi Bashour really let me down with this one. We will see what he does next, but this was a big misstep. I can’t give a whole recommendation, but if the What It Is section interests you, check it out when it releases, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.