One had hoped that the talented Alexandra Daddario would be remembered as something more than the comely actress whose topless scene in True Detective crowned her Queen of GIFs. The talented Alexandra Daddario has tried her hand at roles in genre pictures — the replacement squeeze in Joe Dante’s singular misfire Burying the Ex, The Rock’s daughter in San Andreas, outrageously miscast as the (relatively speaking) “plain Jane” in Baywatch, and the one bright ray in the otherwise dim We Summon the Darkness — but nothing, save those placidly clear baby blues, seems to stick in viewers’ minds. Lost Girls & Love Hotels is a Japan-set variation on Looking for Mr. Goodbar. By day, Margaret (Daddario) teaches proper American pronunciation to budding flight attendants. By night, she’s a sub, her sights set on searching the sidewalks and subways for a dom to escort to the titular chain of mini-brothels known for luxurious rooms that rent by the hour. “You remind me of me,” her sympathetic boss Mari (Mariko Tsutsui) confesses after enduring weeks of Margaret’s chronic tardiness and frequently disheveled classroom demeanor. Their brief scenes together stand out amidst the formulaic encounters between Margaret and the soon-to-be wed yakuza (Takehiro Hira) she falls for. Daddario is fine, but even she can’t summon the inner grease-monkey needed to stop the plot from constantly stalling. William Olsson directs. (2020) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.