Here’s a hot tip – HOT MESS is a genuine hidden gem.

Fans of Fleabag should flock to this frank, funky and funny depiction of life’s priorities for a 25 year old antsy artsy woman, Loz, played with appreciable aplomb by brilliant newcomer Sarah Gaul.

The future looks bleaker than a pandemic for Loz, 25-years-old and striving to make it as a playwright. She’s aiming to become writer in residence at a theatre but her style and content is proving too confrontational for the committee.

Her love life is stalling too, in free fall for some time, her persona a bit too full on for many blokes.

When she meets Dave, a seemingly sensitive guy, Loz thinks she’s finally been cut a break: a guy with a paying job and he loves to spoon. But will Dave be able to fill her yawning existential void? Or will he throw her over the edge, back into the abyss of goon-filled lonely Fridays, desperate girlfriends and endless episodes of reality TV?

HOT MESS is the first feature film by Australian writer and director Lucy Coleman and it’s a blitzer, hysterical and heartfelt, with zinger dialogue and relatable characters and situations.

Shot around Sydney’s inner west including Newtown’s iconic New Theatre, HOT MESS boasts a couple of terrific cameos from Terry Serio and Zoe Carrides as the theatre’s artistic director and Loz’s mum respectively.

A chuffed little charmer to while away your current self isolation.

HOT MESS is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Fetch TV, Google Play and YouTube. MA 15+