A restless, dizzyingly-curious auteur, Claire Denis is right at home filming in war-torn Nicaragua, reporting on the micro and macro in “Stars at Noon” with a winking deftness. She knows what we’ve come to expect from a steamy thriller set abroad—deception, beads of sweat, Bogie and Stanwyck impersonations!—but she shuns a customary arc, focusing less on plot and more on character development. Thanks to Denis’ observational powers and Tindersticks’ (a frequent Denis collaborator) gloomy and mellow soundtrack, conflict builds and bursts in a messy, disjointed, noirish maze. The film sets traps to keep us guessing, with characters that are engaging and frustrating in equal measure. It’s easy to buy in, not just because this is a Denis film, but because there’s an inherent mystery about how these people found themselves in this predicament, and how they intend to get out.
Trish (Margaret Qualley) is a stranded American journalist reduced to trading sex for cash and favors: she can’t even buy her own shampoo. Her motives for being in Nicaragua may have started out idealistically, but in the end, she’s as much of an altruist as Daniel (Joe Alwyn), a handsome, bearded Brit who Trish meets at a hotel bar. Daniel’s in town on behalf of an oil company looking to invest money in this chaotic country. Trish is aghast, having already seen the worst of this militaristic regime, and when Daniel suggests the investment has as much of a humanitarian as profit-seeking motive. Here we can feel Denis behind the scenes, weaving in themes—imperialism, greed, unwelcome visitors—she has so effectively explored throughout her career. This includes the torrid, terrifying “White Material” (2009), starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee farmer desperate to maintain her crop.
Characters that Start Out Looking Out For Themselves
The motives of Huppert’s character in “White Material” were transparent and unwavering: protect her family’s harvest primarily, and secondarily, survive. All of the characters in “Stars at Noon” are looking out for themselves. Trish is the extreme example here, making friends (a horny military man and an older businessman who “can’t get it up”) in low places because she has no other option. Her relationship with Daniel starts off transactional—she charges him $50 to have sex—and when their attachment deepens, Trish discovers that Daniel’s no longer safe, with a local cop watching over him. They resolve to leave Nicaragua together, but after a chance meeting with a mysterious consultant (Benny Safdie, sweaty and stellar in limited screen time), Trish wonders what Daniel stands to gain or lose from his involvement in the local government, and how that could derail her departure from the country.
Margaret Qualley in “Stars at Noon.” (Photo: A24).
Denis’s camera is best when trailing or watching from a distance, taking in the rain-soaked streets, crowded marketplaces, and the vacated hotels that characterize upheaval and narrative doom. The expansive scenery of these outdoor settings evokes the great films of Wim Wenders, for whom Denis worked as an Assistant Director on his “Paris, Texas” (1984) and “Wings of Desire” (1987). Here, the city isn’t glowing like Paris, France does for Juliette Binoche in Denis’ “Let the Sunshine In” (2017)—it’s threatening, especially to those outsiders who no longer belong. Trish’s biggest misdeed wasn’t writing an article exposing murder (that’s revealed almost halfway through the film) and corruption in the new government. It was invading the privacy of a country she had only read about, perhaps in that travel magazine she mentions to her employer (John C. Reilly), who now wants nothing to do with her.
Claire Denis—Worth Following Wherever She Goes
Qualley’s performance is convincing, yet erratic. Her cunning, juvenile behavior is both believable and forgivable, since she has no other choice but to beg others for help. Eventually, Trish’s association with Daniel leads to her expulsion from the hotel where she was staying, and her military and businessman friends also need to cut her loose. When her life unravels, the film loses some steam, redirecting the attention from these complex characters to a violent conclusion that is all but inevitable. Still, Denis packages it all in a way that keeps us guessing, rewarding us for following the clues set early on with how these people behave under pressure. Daniel starts as an assured professional, and turns into an homme fatale with a few foolish decisions that Trish can’t undo. Trish, resourceful as always, was bound to make it out somehow, thanks to and at the expense of her allies.
If the film tried to wrap up things neatly, with an admonishing message or splashy conclusion, it would have negated Denis’ meticulously-built tension. (She co-wrote the script with Andrew Litvack, based on the novel by a different Denis: the late writer, Denis Johnson). It does lack the satisfying, unsettling payoff of “White Material” and maybe it’s unfair to claim none of the leads have the power to carry a film like Huppert or Binoche can. But “Stars at Noon” is a sharp, twisty film, which tricks us into believing that we know something these characters do not. For most of the film, it’s hard to tell who’s in control, and only when the credits roll do we realize that it’s Denis, who can’t help but upend expectations with any subject matter. She’s worth following wherever she goes, having that rare personal filmmaking style that baffles and delights.
“Stars at Noon” is streaming on Hulu, and is available for rent and purchase on several other services.
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