Joe Alwyn andMargaret Qualley take the lead in "Stars at Noon ."- The film was directed by Claire Denis and debuted at the
Cannes Film Festival .
French filmmaker Claire Denis is one of the most beloved directors of her generation. In a career that has stretched several decades, however, she has never crossed over into the English-speaking mainstream.
In 2018, Denis came close to a crossover hit with A24's psychedelic sci-fi film "High Life" starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche.
Now, Denis is back with "Stars at Noon," her boldest attempt at popular genre filmmaking.
The film — which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday — is adapted from the 1986 novel by Denis Johnson. Johnson's novel is set in Nicaragua in the 1980s during the country's violent civil war, but here, the story is updated to the present day with COVID tests, face masks, and temperature-checking machines. But Denis is deliberately vague about whether her characters are in Nicaragua or some other Central American country. Denis is deliberately vague about most of the film's details.
Margaret Qualley plays Trish, a young American woman who has traveled to Central America as a freelance journalist, but she has lost the support of her editor back in the US (played by John C Reilly in a hilarious Zoom cameo) after proving unreliable in a string of previous assignments.
Trish has also soured her reputation amongst the country's political elite after publishing a misguided piece on state-sanctioned corruption and violence. She is now forced to hang around the bars of luxury hotels and engage in sex work with wealthy businessmen.
One evening, Trish meets a mysterious Englishman called Daniel (a thoroughly unconvincing Joe Alwyn), who claims to be a consultant for an energy company and pays for her services.
Later, Trish spots Daniel at a meeting with a local businessman who claims to be seeking professional advice. However, Trish — who is equipped with perfect Spanish and sharp street smarts — recognizes that the man is a Costa Rican cop working for a government agency desperate to take out Daniel. It soon becomes clear that Daniel, too, is not who he seems. As the danger increases, Trish and Daniel hit the road and have a passionate affair.
At first, "Stars at Noon" will seem an odd choice for a director like Denis, who has built her career on sharp and sensual chamber pieces. But despite the film's genre trappings, Denis does not abandon thematic and stylistic trademarks, such as the lengthy wordless scenes and groovy dance sequences that we might associate with her work.
And it's not difficult to see why Denis was drawn to Johnson's story, which drops the relationship between two white characters against the backdrop of a country attempting to shake off the cobwebs of European colonialism, a theme that Denis, who was raised in colonial West Africa, has explored throughout her career in films like 1999's masterful "Beau Travail" and 2005's "White Material."
This tension is mostly carried by Qualley, who is a magnetic lead. She darts around the screen effortlessly switching between English and Spanish in an urgent frenzy that raises the film's stakes. Unfortunately, her efforts are not matched by her costar. Alwyn inherited the role from Taron Egerton and, before him, Robert Pattinson. Both actors dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and Denis' film suffers as a result. Alwyn is stiff and unconvincing, but most importantly, he seems to lack the sizzling sex appeal required for a role this complex and demanding.
As "Stars" comes to a close, the narrative blossoms into a full-blown, large-scale thriller with flairs of James Bond-esque espionage in a series of brilliant sequences featuring Benny Safdie ("Uncut Gems").
The film's final act is ambiguous, which will frustrate some viewers and excite others. And by the end, it all feels like a quintessential work by Denis, who continues to cruise by at the top of her game.