Starring Margaret Qually (Trish), daughter of Andie MacDowell, model and actress, Joe Alwyn (Daniel), Benny Safdie (CIA), Dannuy Ramirez (Costa Rican cop) and Nick Romano (military), Stars At Noon is directed by Claire Denis. With a run time of 138 mins, the film is due in Cinemas on 1 December 2022.
Trish is a young American journalist stranded in present-day Nicaragua doing all she can to survive. She seduces the enigmatic Englishman Daniel, seeing it as her ticket to escape. However, it soon comes to light that he's in even more trouble than she is, and has only put her in more danger.
Trish has gotten over her head in Nicaragua, her passport seized and unable to leave the country. It seems it may have had something to do with one unattractive piece she wrote about the situation in the country. Marooned indefinitely she resorts to trading sex for protection, rum money and her very survival. It turns out this street smart young woman's claim to being a journalist is a little murky, but then again, it seems everyone else's story is just as vague.
As mesmerising as Qualley is in her role, you wonder if there's a point to any part of this film other than watch life unfolding listlessly and aimlessly unless of course tedium is the point it's trying to make. It's very unclear as to who is in trouble for what and what exactly everyone is doing in Nicaragua besides being frustratingly vague. It would have made more sense if it stopped trying to be a political thriller, and was a straight out tale of eroticism as it borders on it with more than a few sex scenes. But there is also a lot of empty spaces, and had the film been edited like the trailer, it would probably have been far more exciting and filled with action, of which there was none. Not the greatest film for me, but Qually's sublime performances makes it very watchable.
