Rose and her daughter Sofia travel to the Spanish seaside town of Almería to consult with the shamanic Dr. Gomez, a physician who could possibly hold the cure to Rose’s mystery illness, which has left her bound to a wheelchair. But in the sultry atmosphere of this sun-bleached town Sofia, who has been trapped by her mother’s illness all her life, finally starts to shed her inhibitions, enticed by the persuasive charms of enigmatic traveller Ingrid.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.1/10
IMDb: 5.6/10
Letterboxd: 2.74/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 37%
Metacritic: 55
TMDB: 5.9/10
Director
Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Production
Bonnie Productions, Never Sleep Pictures, Heretic
Cast
Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw, Vincent Perez, Vicky Krieps, Patsy Ferran, Yann Gael, Vangelis Mourikis, Electra Sarri, Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Elena Casablanca, Nikos Kardonis, Vasilis Tsigristaris, Dimitris Oikonomidis, Maria Vlachopoulou, Paraskevi Argyriadou, Paris Thomopoulos, Korina Gougouli, Elisavet Liosi, Sofia Papadopoulou, Denia Mimerini
Where to watch
Hulu, AMC+, Philo, Sundance Now
Curator Review
Verdict
A sun-bleached, emotionally fraught mother-daughter drama with queer awakening and coastal languor, Hot Milk has strong atmosphere and a few sharp performances, but its symbolism and emotional distance may leave some viewers cold. It’s best approached as a mood piece rather than a tightly plotted character study.
Best for
viewers drawn to sensual, literary dramas about family entanglement
fans of queer coming-of-age stories with a European art-house feel
people who like films driven by atmosphere, bodies, and emotional unease
Skip if
you want a clear, propulsive narrative
you dislike elliptical symbolism and ambiguous character behavior
you prefer warm, empathetic dramas over chilly, detached ones
Overview
Hot Milk is built on heat, illness, and repression: a daughter trapped in her mother’s orbit, a seaside setting that feels both liberating and airless, and a romance that arrives like a disruptive breeze. The film’s strongest asset is its mood, using light, landscape, and physical discomfort to externalize emotional stasis.
Worth noting
The performances do a lot of the heavy lifting, especially in the mother-daughter dynamic, which gives the film its tension and ache. When the movie leans into desire, dependency, and the uneasy pull of escape, it feels alive; when it retreats into abstraction, it can feel mannered and emotionally withheld.
Bottom line
For viewers who enjoy literary adaptations and queer self-discovery stories with a European art-house texture, there is enough here to admire. For everyone else, the film may register more as an elegant surface than a fully satisfying emotional journey.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Robin (3★) · 3674 likes
Call me by your aftersun-by-the-sea portrait of a lady on fire
albeertvs (2.5★) · 2594 likes
Why would you call this movie ‘Hot Milk’ when all she asks for is water?