Opening

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30% The Hangover Part III May 23
88% Epic May 24
97% Before Midnight May 24
70% We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
88% Fill the Void May 24
—— A Green Story May 24
—— Alyce Kills May 24

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77% 42 $2.8M
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98% Mud $2.2M
36% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.2M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31
89% The East May 31

The Hottest State (2006)

tomatometer

31

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 54
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 37

Despite strong performances and a unique style, The Hottest State is too self-conscious and pretentious to truly succeed.

36

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 25
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 16

Despite strong performances and a unique style, The Hottest State is too self-conscious and pretentious to truly succeed.

audience

50

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 4,774

My Rating

Movie Info

Soon after relocating from Texas to New York in a bid to make the big time, a 21-year-old actor enters into a turbulent relationship with a struggling singer/songwriter in writer/director Ethan Hawke's screen adaptation of his own debut novel. William (Mark Webber) is an aspiring actor with dreams of making it big. Upon arriving in New York City, William soon enters into a tenuous romance with Sarah (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a talented musician with a winning voice and keen songwriting skills.

PG-13,

Drama

Ethan Hawke

Dec 4, 2007

ThinkFilm

Cast

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All Critics (54) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (39) | DVD (4)

If nothing else, Hawke has managed to recreate, with neurological immediacy, the sensation of being harassed by a selfish, clueless ex-lover.

September 22, 2008 Full Review Source: The New Republic
The New Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

September 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out New York
Time Out New York
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

September 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

[The two main characters] are in all honesty the least sympathetic and most egregiously boring romantic pair that I've seen onscreen in ages.

September 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment (1)
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's a small film, it's a mild recommendation, but I still think it's worth checking out.

September 18, 2007
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

September 7, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Breaking up is hard to do. So is making a movie about it. Ethan Hawke, in his adaptation of his own novel, doesn't try very hard. Or maybe he tries too hard.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

The film is perfectly fine indie fare, but the plot and the characters seem a little more self-indulgently autobiographical than compelling.

August 26, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelzChannel.com

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.

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

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.

December 2, 2007 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

What's apparently deeply personal for Hawke winds up deeply torturous for the audience.

November 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Metromix.com
Metromix.com

Moody relationship drama is best for adults.

October 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

Not the hottest movie.

September 23, 2007 Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com

This is a beautifully made, involving film, but it would have been so much stronger with a bit of careful editing.

September 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall
Shadows on the Wall

The Hottest State lacks heat.

September 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

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.

September 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Oregonian
Oregonian

It's nothing new, but [writer/director Ethan] Hawke captures some evocative textures and honest moments.

September 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Audience Reviews for The Hottest State

[size=3]"The Hottest State" from writer/director [b]Ethan Hawke[/b], could have been fantastic. It is ultra-realistic, focusing on the anxieties, hopes and challenges of real people. Where other films invent absurd situations for dramatic effect, "The Hottest State" stays resolutely in tune with real life as it is lived for the vast majority of Americans. I loved this about it.[/size]

[size=3][img]http://www.fipresci.org/festivals/archive/2006/toronto/images/hottest_state_01.jpg[/img][/size]

[size=3]The problem is that through most of the film I found the characters insufferably boring and annoying. Being in their presence was at times torturous. It wasn't an interesting depiction of boring people. It was a boring depiction of boring people. It does come together well in the end, when one of the characters finally makes a change in his life. But the beginning and middle were so horrendous that I can't say the end is worth waiting for. [/size][size=3]Hawke (who also plays a supporting role) strikes me as the kind of filmmaker who has fantastic ideas but just can't turn them into good films.[/size]
September 9, 2007
Bill D 2007
William Dunmyer

Super Reviewer

The pacing is quite fractured and the dialogue doesn't always work perfectly, but I personally enjoyed this film to a great extent. Overall, it's a very well-written piece guided by subtle direction from Hawke and excellent performances from the entire cast. Sad, engaging and driven by a sense of rare honesty.
February 12, 2008
michaelcorleone

Super Reviewer

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