The Hot Spot
The whole neo-noir ‘90s thing is almost as inexplicable as the depression-era film fixation of the ‘70s; there was just something in the water. But it wound up producing some really interesting left-of-center titles like Bound, The Last Seduction and After Dark, My Sweet . Ironically, the film with the best pedigree of the bunch, The Hot Spot (1990), didn’t even burn a hole in the upholstery. Directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Don Johnson, this almost Lynchian bit of small-town debauchery deserves more recognition than just being the movie where Jennifer Connelly appears topless. Rolling into town in his vintage Studebaker, Harry Madox (Johnson) is an opportunist who stumbles onto an easy bank robbery job. But after burying the loot, he’s blackmailed by his boss’s wife, Dolly, (Virginia Madsen) to continue their sexual escapades. Harry stays out of jail, but his real interests lie in starting a new life with the virginal Gloria (Connelly), if he can only manage to get her ...