Variety critic Guy Lodge reviews "Hot Spot," a new science-fiction film from Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska, whose eclectic filmography includes "The Lure," "Fugue" and "The Silent Twins." The film, released through Focus Features after premiering at Fantasia and Poland's New Horizons festival, is described as a strange blend of grim post-apocalyptic vision and eighties cyberpunk kitsch, starring Andrzej Konopka and Noomi Rapace, though the review notes it has little functional story beneath its striking world-building.

The film is set in an unspecified future where climate catastrophe and governmental collapse have devastated humanity, leaving survivors dependent on a sentient AI system called "the Head" for water, food and even telepathic communication, while it also enforces brutal punishment for rule-breakers. Konopka plays Djonny, a compliant police detective with an outlandish 1980s-inspired look, whose livelihood is threatened by those who resist the AI's control. It is Smoczynska's biggest budget yet and marks a reunion with "The Lure" screenwriter Robert Bolesto, though the review suggests the ambitious concept doesn't fully cohere into a satisfying narrative.