| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 23, 2009

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

| Sep 22, 2008

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

| Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 26, 2008

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.

| Dec 4, 2007

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

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 8, 2007

Moody relationship drama is best for adults.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 22, 2007

Not the hottest movie.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 23, 2007

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

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 22, 2007

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 21, 2007

The Hottest State lacks heat.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 21, 2007

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

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 21, 2007

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

Full Review | Sep 18, 2007

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.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 14, 2007

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

| Original Score: B- | Sep 13, 2007

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 7, 2007

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 7, 2007

As a director Ethan Hawke has learned a great deal from his mentor, Richard Linklater.

| Sep 7, 2007

Buy the CD and skip the movie.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 7, 2007