A couple of other movies:
HEATWAVE: Watchable but routine 2022 thriller about a bisexual Black woman with a checkered past (Kat Graham) who lands an exciting job with an upscale commercial real estate firm and finds a sexy white girlfriend (Merritt Patterson), only to find herself in a world of trouble after discovering that her new girlfriend is actually the trophy wife of her jealous, domineering new boss (Sebastian Roché). Making the protagonist a Black woman is novel for this genre (although it has less impact on the plot than perhaps it should), and the Graham character is a resourceful heroine, but the plot isn't quite inventive enough to make up for the all-too-familiar premise, and the story can't seem to decide what note it wants to end on, leading to a less-than-satisfying resolution. The corny voiceover that bookends the film doesn't help either.
THE HOT SPOT: GIF sets floating around Tumblr might give you the mistaken impression that this 1990 thriller, directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, and Jennifer Connelly, is some kind of forgotten sexy gem. In fact, it's a frustratingly lifeless neo-noir about a sleazy used car salesman (Johnson) in a small Texas town who attempts to juggle an ill-advised affair with his boss's vampish wife (Madsen), who has murder on her mind, with his pursuit of the dealership's financing manager (Connelly), a nice girl who's being blackmailed by a local ne'er-do-well (William Sadler) over her dead sister's past lesbian affair. Wants to evoke DOUBLE INDEMNITY and BODY HEAT, but it trips from plot point to plot point in disjointed, illogical fashion, failing to develop any real narrative momentum, much less suspense. Despite its murders, arson, and other assorted mayhem, it's ultimately just boring, with only the periodic scenes of Madsen or Connelly mostly naked to keep the viewer awake. Don't waste your time.
THE SQUAD: Frustratingly joyless, moderately exploitative 2023 action movie, written, produced, and directed by Rick Walker, about three ruthless, bikini-clad 20something white girls (Alea Hansinger, Meghan Carrasquillo, and Grace Evans), once rescued from foster care by a benefactor called Alpha (Jennifer Ferguson), who attempt to break into the drug scene on the Oklahoma coast in the run-up to spring break and quickly run afoul of the game's established players. The leering direction is a series of music video clichés — every scene feels like it's leading up to either a montage or a dance routine that's not forthcoming — and the clumsy script does a terrible job of establishing basic plot and character details (the girls' relationship with Alpha, the most potentially interesting part of the story, is consigned to a handful of awkwardly placed flashbacks). Of the poorly defined characters, only the girls' friend JC makes any impression, and then mostly because of the physical presence of MMA star Julia Avila (who isn't given much chance to demonstrate whether or not she can act). As demonstrated by the silly but entertaining 2018 remake of SUPERFLY (by Director X and Alex Tse), it's possible to do this kind of thing in a way that at least qualifies as dumb fun, but THE SQUAD is too mean-spirited to work even on that level, and the end titles' promise of a sequel seems more like a threat than a promise.
