Berlinale 2025 Review: HOT MILK, Angry Daughter, Flighty Lover, Manipulative Mother on Vacation

Everything in Hot Milk is about to spoil. The movie unfolds in a low-rent resort in Almería on the southeast seacoast of Spain. There, Sofia (Emma Mackey) and her mother Rose (Fiona Shaw) are trapped in a "vacation" that shows no signs of ending.

Stuck caring for her invalid mother, Sofia is by turns bitter, petulant, and suspicious. Rose, on the other hand, is a monstrous manipulator who may or may not be suffering from paralysis.

Then there's Ingrid (Vicky Krieps), a local seamstress who captivates Sofia by riding horseback along the beach. As passions flare, Ingrid reveals that she once killed someone. Not a big enough red flag in Sofia's eyes. But will her casual dalliances with others ruin Ingrid's affair with Sofia?

Many drinks, cigarettes, angry glares, painful jellyfish stings, and dream sequences later, Sofia departs for Greece to reconnect with Christos, the father who abandoned her years earlier. Remarried, Christos has an infant girl. He warns Sofia about her mother, and Rose's secrets about her sister.

Based on a 2016 novel by Deborah Levy, Hot Milk is the debut feature for director Rebecca Lenkiewicz, known for her writing work on films like Ida. As a calling card, it hits all the film festival sweet spots: elliptical dialogue, heavy visual symbols, dysfunctional relationships, fractured storylines, obscure dream sequences.

But as a narrative, Hot Milk is a crushingly dull retread of every "Why does Mom hate me?" story you've ever read. Don't blame Vicky Krieps, who against all odds turns in another luminous performance as a sort of pansexual object of desire.

You can't fault Fiona Shaw, either. She delivers spellbinding monologues, bends everyone to her will, and has established an almost clinical dominance over her daughter. Watching Rose cajole and tease Sophia never gets tiresome, even as the plot devolves into soap opera histrionics.

Mackey's part is the weak link here. Her character is adept at using her physical beauty to avoid life's day-to-day complications. In a more long-term form of avoidance, Sofia is studying anthropology and Margaret Mead, "a permanent student," as Rose puts it. Sullen, antagonistic, distrustful, she is a good-looking but completely unsympathetic wreck.

It's up to Lenkiewicz to pull this all together. Instead, her film wallows in tics and digressions, in scenes that lead nowhere and breakdowns that are far too photogenic. Don't be fooled by the beautiful surroundings or the promise of sexual tension. Hot Milk is highbrow tedium.

(Photo © Nikos Nikolopoulos / MUBI). The film enjoyed its world premiere at the 2025 Berlinale.