The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

In A Burning Hot Summer (a pulpy title that sounds better in the original, "Un Été Brûlant), two men fall into friendship, and while little happens, everything is at stake.

Time Out by Eric Hynes

There are subtler, more allusive films about stormy conflicts of the heart, but A Burning Hot Summer wisely knows when and how to surgically slice directly to the bone. It's a bad romance of the highest order.

Village Voice by Nick Schager

Although Angèle's religious faith and Frédéric's belief in luck seem like strained attempts at adding heft to the material, the film nevertheless works up a potent dramatic restlessness, derived from the push-pull between an entitled, obsessive Frédéric and Bellucci's quietly chaotic Angèle.

Slant Magazine

The Louis Garrel character's mixture of self-containment and alleged possessiveness over his wife fails to convince, if not to irritate.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

A Burning Hot Summer failed to persuade me of any reason for its existence.

Slant Magazine by Ela Bittencourt

The Louis Garrel character's mixture of self-containment and alleged possessiveness over his wife fails to convince, if not to irritate.

New York Post

It's apt that the Rome weather in this stodgy film, contrary to the title, seems quite temperate.

New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme

It's apt that the Rome weather in this stodgy film, contrary to the title, seems quite temperate.