It seems odd to ask how hot the temperature must be so that human behavior starts to melt, but that’s exactly what Brutal Heat (Brutální vedro) does. The feature directorial debut of writer and director Albert Hospodářský is as weird as it sounds, delivering a surreal coming-of-age story imbued with Gen-Z energy. Unfortunately, while Brutal Heat is overflowing with style, the movie struggles with pacing, which ultimately hurts the experience.

In Brutal Heat, a fragment of the Sun has dislocated from the burning star and now orbits the Earth, making the temperature of the planet rise to almost unbearable levels. It’s not a coincidence that the world is on fire, as the movie sets itself as a metaphor for climate change and the challenges we face in the real world due to the threat humanity might be wiped out in a few decades. In a world superheated by the Sun fragment, people spend their days sweating and looking for means to cool down. Still, life goes on, with everyone focused on their mundane tasks instead of the calamity glowing in the skies. After all, when the end of the world seems unavoidable, what else can people do besides focusing on the present? This combination of nihilism and apathy helps define the Gen-Z zeitgeist, and it’s precisely the perspective of Brutal Heat’s protagonist (Vincent Hospodářský).

He is a lonely young man whose only concern is getting to a cottage in the woods where his friends are having a party. Without much money or perspective about the future, and unable to connect with his father, he quickly jumps on a train to his destination. However, what should be a simple trip turns into a never-ending adventure once everyone starts to behave strangely due to the high temperatures. As such, Brutal Heat’s protagonist gets increasingly lost while trying to avoid grumpy old ladies, sexual predators, and criminals.

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‘Brutal Heat’ Makes a Statement
It’s not a coincidence that so many people in Brutal Heat are horny, angry, or a mix of both. With its sequences of surreal scenes, it is trying to make a statement about how people devolve when faced with the end of the world. It’s almost like the Sun fragment burned away all possible human nuance and left behind only the most instinctive part of our brains. As animals, humans are wired to fight, flee, and find a sexual partner, which explains the strange behavior depicted in the movie.

That doesn’t mean Brutal Heat is cynical. For every person who raises an obstacle on the way to the party, there’s someone else who goes out of their way to help those in need. It would be easy for Brutal Heat to only show the darkest pits of human behavior when faced with adversity, one of the main themes resonating in post-apocalyptic stories. Instead, the movie spends a good chunk of its runtime showing how strangers can support each other when all hell breaks loose. In that regard, Brutal Heat comes out almost optimistic, as it proposes that solidarity between people is as primal as the need to procreate.

It doesn’t take long to realize the film is filled with good ideas wrapped around a lot of humor. Unfortunately, the movie has serious pacing issues that drag the story down. While Brutal Heat has a main narrative, the movie can be broken down into different chapters that work as small sketches about human desire. Though each of these moments echoes the movie’s main theme, they also take away a much-needed fluidity. That’s because, even if these parallel storylines eventually connect to the film’s main journey, they make Brutal Heat feel like a collection of shorts instead of a single feature-length adventure. While there’s nothing wrong with the anthology format, its indecisiveness about its structure introduces unwanted hiccups.

‘Brutal Heat’ Nearly Flames Out
Image via Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

As a semi-anthology, Brutal Heat also suffers from the fact that some of its chapters are more interesting than others. When the movie is at its peak, it can be a hilarious, dreamlike trip where reality is liquefied under the beating Sun. However, at its worst, it drags some events out for far too long, testing the viewer’s patience.

There’s a lot of care poured into Brutal Heat, which makes us want to love it. Still, the lack of cohesive pacing gives the impression the directorial debut could have spent a little longer in the editing room until some issues had been ironed out. As a result, Brutal Heat delivers a curious experiment that never fully embraces the potential of its concept.

Rating: C+

Brutal Heat had its world premiere at 2023’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.