Killer Heat (2024) is directed by Philippe Lacote and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Richard Madden, Clare Holman, Babou Ceesay, and Abbey Lee. The film follows Nick Bali (Gordon-Levitt), a down-on-his-luck private detective who’s hired by a woman (Woodley) on an isolated Greek island to investigate the death of her husband’s twin brother (Madden). He soon uncovers evidence of a shady family business as well as a mysterious love triangle involving the two brothers. With his life at risk, Nick dives deeper into the mystery, and in turn, his own traumatic past. 

Not only are the characters ridiculous, but the performances are some of the worst I’ve seen from mainstream actors since Madame Web (2024). Gordon-Levitt is wooden and lacks his typical charisma; he just plays an alcoholic detective with zero sense of humor – a trope we’ve seen countless times before. What makes things worse is that he speaks like he’s in a 1940s noir film. The idea is cool, but it doesn’t translate and just makes him seem like a total nut. If the film committed fully to an older era, the experience would work significantly better. 

Besides one emotional scene, Shailene Woodley gives another wooden performance that makes me wonder why she keeps getting cast in lead roles. She has zero chemistry with anyone in the cast, but I suppose I can’t just put the blame all on her. The material sucks no matter the performer.

The film is thematically empty besides a few cringe-worthy attempts to connect the characters to the Greek myth, Icarus. Not only has this been done before, but the movie never really makes these connections, it just implies them. The mystery is also confusing and I think that’s because it truly just doesn’t make any sense. Nick says the line “I’m just trying to understand what happened here” three times throughout the film and all I could think was “Me too, Nick. Me too.”

There is a decent twist in the third act, but that’s only because, at that point, you don’t expect the movie to do anything particularly competent. It works, but it’s tough to care. Everything is just so lifeless that you want it to end 30 minutes early (and it’s only about 88 minutes long). 

Overall, this is one of the most bland, poorly-acted, forgettable movies of the year. Everything it tries pretty much fails, and even when it does slightly succeed, it’s tough to care. This is bad even for a streaming release and commits the sin of being the worst possible thing a movie can be: plain. It’s not the worst of the worst, but it’s close. D