[Madsen] keeps trying for Blanche DuBois and coming out with Gomer Pyle.
– Hal Hinson,
Washington Post,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
I feel at home in movies like "The Hot Spot." They come out of that vast universe formed by the historic meeting of B movies and the idea of film noir - films about the soft underbelly of the human conscience.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
For all its genre touches, ''The Hot Spot'' is best remembered for its little eccentricities.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
30 Aug 2004
fresh:
The film might have been a camp hoot if it weren't for the fact that Hopper still believes in all this stuff - he likes his women molten, duplicitous, and in kinky high heels.
– Owen Gleiberman,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Sep 2011
fresh:
The Hot Spot seeps with atmosphere, unfolds at a deceptively relaxed pace, steadily accumulates noirish grit, then dizzily plunges into a Lynch-like plumbing of the dark passions and nasty secrets at the heart of Main Street, USA.