Some films are less about plot and more about a vibe – a sticky, sun-drenched vibe that leaves you wondering if you’ve actually watched a story unfold or just drifted through someone else’s subconscious. Hot Milk lives there. Based on Deborah Levy’s novel, it strands us in Almería, Spain, with Sofia (Emma Mackey) and her mother Rose (Fiona Shaw).
On paper, it’s about a daughter caring for a manipulative mother. In practice, it’s a coming-of-age story – and, more importantly, it’s a queer one!
Sofia drifts in her mother’s shadow until Ingrid (Vicky Krieps) barges into the picture – direct, magnetic, and unapologetically queer. What follows isn’t soft-focus romance but something sharper: urgent, messy, and charged with the jolt of first recognition. Ingrid doesn’t woo Sofia so much as jolt her awake, pushing her to confront desires she’s never quite articulated.
Mackey gives Sofia a kind of languid detachment – cool on the surface, restless underneath. Her queerness doesn’t arrive with a big declaration; it unfolds gradually, like she’s testing the water before diving in. Krieps’s Ingrid, by contrast, is sharp and insistent, pushing Sofia to stop drifting and actually take a stand.
Visually, the film leans into the hallucinatory. The Mediterranean light is oppressive, all gold and glare, turning every frame into something half-real. Snakes curl across the sand. Conversations blur into dream logic. It makes you feel uncomfortable and uneasy.
What keeps it interesting is the mother-daughter dynamic. Shaw is brilliant as Rose (as we all know, she kills it in everything she does), manipulative but magnetic, a woman whose pain might be psychosomatic but whose need for attention is very real. Watching Mackey’s Sofia try to prise herself loose feels like the film’s true love story – not the flings, not the heat-drunk lust, but the brutal, messy process of cutting the cord.
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Hot Milk isn’t tidy, and it doesn’t pretend to be. Desire never is – and queerness, tangled up with family and old patterns, is even harder to pin down.
Watch the Hot Milk Trailer
Where to stream Hot Milk
Where to watch in the UK
You can stream Hot Milk now in the UK on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Mubi.
Where to watch in USA
Loads of options to watch in USA, including Amazon Video (US), Apple TV (US), and Google Play Movies (US).
Where to watch in AUS
Right now, there isn’t an official streaming platform confirmed for Aus. No listings yet on MUBI, Apple, Amazon, or AMC+ for the region. Closest option is to keep tabs here: JustWatch Australia – Hot Milk
Nonchalant x
Babs heads up Logistics and Product here at Nonchalant Magazine.
