Directors Devin and Robert Burkosky set their latest crime comedy, Heat Score, in the seedy Edmonton underworld of strip clubs, crack cocaine, and violent debt collection. Lust is the daily special, and greed is the entrée that will get you killed.
Famed Edmonton male stripper Vince Valcone (Dean Lonsdale) was the guy women once screamed for. These days, he’s doing lines of coke just before the audition he has no business attending. He blows the audition, his anger takes over, and he beats a worker senseless with the help of brass knuckles. After blowing off a hooker because $50 was too high, Vince returns home only to be confronted by his landlord, Tazz, who lets him know he needs to pay his rent by the end of the day or he’s out.
To cope with the stress, Vince goes to his buddy Smokey (Christian Stahl), who sets him up with some blow. Smokey says Vince should check out Armando’s strip club because tonight is their weekly ladies’ night. When the night’s performer fails to show up… dies, Vince gets his chance, and he kills it. He makes a lot of cash and is invited back. He then runs into one of the ladies, Vivian (Kaley Leblanc), and sleeps with her that night. But not before Vince again savagely beats a man jealous that his girl tipped him so much.
Vince’s brawler skills get the attention of Armando Von Helmsley (Robert Burkosky) himself. Not only does he own the club, but he’s Edmonton’s drug kingpin. Armando hires Vince to “collect” debts. Vince says yes on the condition that he can still strip on ladies’ night. Vince is great at his job and continues to bed Vivian…only to find out she is Armando’s wife and that she wants him dead so she can take over the drug trade with Vince.
“Famed Edmonton male stripper Vince Valcone was the guy women once screamed for.”
If that wasn’t enough for Armando. The other mob leaders want to take over Armando’s territory and send in a plant, Nina Diamond (Brandi Strauss), to gather intel on his operation. Things change when Armando sends Vince to a private party to strip — only for Vince to fall into a dangerous BDSM sex trap.
Sex, drugs, and a mafia beatdown — Heat Score is the kind of movie today’s uptight world tells you you shouldn’t like. Cheap production values, a cast full of degenerates, and a plot that throws you headfirst into the Edmonton strip club underworld faster than you can finish. And I loved it. The Burkosky Brothers nail that ’90s erotic thriller tone on a super low budget. This is a B-movie that knows exactly what it is and commits to it completely. There’s nudity, violence, and a noir web of sex, betrayal, and crack cocaine that tightens around your neck until the credits roll.
Like a good erotic noir, no one is good, and everyone acts in their own self-interest…particularly Vince. Vince is easy enough to root for, but you definitely don’t want to get on his bad side. Dean Lonsdale is Vince — there’s a violent streak in him he cannot hold back, and that makes him both dangerous and entertaining to watch. Everyone is playing Vince and each other. The result is a multi-layered world of drugs, stripping, and greed where no one comes out clean.
In the end, the Burkosky Brothers made a movie that could only be made on an ultralow budget, yet offers enough over-the-top sex and violence to stand above even Hollywood’s attempts to do the same. It’s thrilling and erotic from start to finish.
For more information, visit the Heat Score official Instagram page.
"…Sex, drugs, and a mafia beatdown."
