Hot Water Warms The Soul

Sundance Film Review: Hot Water
Director: Ramzi Bashour
Cow Hip Films, Spark Features, 10mK
Premiere: 01.23.2026

A good road trip, and a good road trip movie, aren’t so much about the destination as they are the smoothness of the ride and the memorable stops along the way. Hot Water, the debut feature from writer-director Ramzi Bashour, knows where he’s going and gets there in style.

Layal (Lubna Azabal, Paradise Now) is already overwhelmed by the pressures of teaching Arabic to whiny college students while longing for the cigarettes she’s given up and her mother and sister back in Lebanon. It only gets worse when her 19-year-old son Daniel (Daniel Zolghadri, Y2K, Lurker) is expelled from his Indiana high school during his senior year after being held back twice, putting his prospect of graduating in jeopardy. Left with no clear alternatives, Layal decides to drive Daniel across the country to California, where he can live with his estranged father and attempt to finish school. What begins as a desperate, practical solution gradually becomes something far more intimate — a shared journey through diners, roadside motels, hot springs and expansive American landscapes that reflect their inner lives. As the miles pass, mother and son are forced to reckon with generational and cultural rifts, vent long-simmering frustrations, and discover moments of humor and tenderness that begin to transform their relationship.

I had such a good time with Hot Water that I saw it again after attending the premiere, and my only regret is that I can’t go back and trade four hours wasted on a couple of dreadful films I won’t name for two more viewings of this little gem. Bashour brings precision and skill to his freshman effort, establishing himself as a talent to keep an eye on. It doesn’t hurt that he has Sundance veteran Max Walker-Silverman (A Love Song, Rebuilding) in his corner as both an executive producer and member of the ensemble, but while the two artists share a number of sensibilities and a knack for storytelling, conversations with both left with no doubt that this was Bashour’s baby. 

What truly sets Hot Water apart is how fully alive it feels, anchored by richly drawn characters who reveal themselves in small, honest gestures rather than big speeches. Layal and Daniel aren’t just well-written — they feel deeply lived-in, their contradictions and vulnerabilities unfolding naturally as the story moves forward. The film is overflowing with heart, finding humor, warmth and pain in equal measure without ever tipping into sentimentality. That emotional balance is matched by the expert pacing crafted by editor Mollie Goldstein, who also cut Andrew Stanton’s In The Blink of an Eye, and whose work gives each moment room to breathe while keeping the journey constantly in motion. Scenes arrive, linger and pass with a quiet confidence, allowing the film’s emotional rhythms to build organically and making the final impact feel both earned and deeply moving.

Azabal and Zolghadri have astonishing chemistry, making Layal and Daniel stand out as wholly believable and endlessly endearing characters, even when they are at their most stubborn. The feeling that we’re watching people rather than performances speaks to the level of synchronicity that Bashour and his two leads achieved, and it’s nothing short of marvelous. The divine Dale Dickey (A Love Song, The G) provides another big assist as the eccentric Sasha, a hippy-dippy friend of Daniel’s father whom the mother and son must crash with along the way. Dickey can make even the most underwritten character into a complex and three dimensional person, and when she’s got a great script, she’s an unstoppable force. 

Hot Water is part warm hug and part cathartic cry. It’s one of the most heartfelt and life affirming films of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. I’d stack the simple charm of this little indie film up against any three big-budget blockbusters any day and it would easily come out on top. This cross-country journey never runs out of gas. —Patrick Gibbs 

Read more of SLUG’s coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.