Review Stars at Noon – Review on FilmTotaal

Director: Claire Dennis | Script: Andrew Litvack, Lea Mysius, Claire Denis | Cast: Margaret Qualley (Trish), Joe Alwyn (Daniel), Nick Roman (Deputy Lieutenant), Benny Safdie (CIA Man), Monica Bartholomew (The Lady), ea | Time to play: 137 minutes | Year: 2022

On Saturday Night Live, you had a recurring skit called “The girl you’d rather not have started a conversation with at a party.” Actress Cecily Strong played her as a drunk and incoherent know-it-all, very funny. Now imagine that person is the main character in a serious dramatic movie. Someone you should see deeply and feel sympathy for. That sounds like a bad idea, but stars at noon Just does it

Trish has come to Nicaragua with the promise of writing a good travel article, but in reality she wants to be a serious journalist. And now she’s stuck there, because she wrote an unflattering article about government corruption. With no passport and the threat of losing her press pass, she earns extra money as a prostitute. One day she meets British Daniel who works for an oil company. The two fall head over heels in love, but he is also being watched closely: they are not safe there.

Thank you for this description, because the viewer has to wait a long time for this explanation of what it is about and what is happening. The reason Trish is in Nicaragua is made clear through a video chat with John C. Reilly. It seems that the actor is sitting in his house and the scene of him was filmed during the corona lockdown.

So Trish is there because she lied about writing a good piece for a travel magazine. Even though the company doesn’t expect anything from her, she believes that she is employed there and that she owes him something. Trish is delusional, as well as acting exhausted and adolescent.

But that’s nothing compared to the dialogues. It looks like a David Lynch movie with all the humor stripped out. Vague conversations with an illogical course. Trish is at a travel agency asking if they can get her a plane ticket, and the person across from her asks if she likes her eggs. She has chickens at home.

In this twisted reality, it’s understandable that Trish and Daniel fall in love. Because in the real world, your passion is meaningless. Up to three times, one of them has the idea that the other has escaped, which translates into acute panic. But why?

Both lack the charm that explains why these two fell so quickly and obsessively in love. Daniel is a bit of a dead fish who rubs the inside of a car window to clean the rain that falls outside, and Trish is an alcoholic, opportunistic, making bad decisions but constantly advising others on what to do. And she reluctantly gives away that money that she has earned with her body to a taxi driver because he likes her a lot.

The movie is based on the 1986 book The Stars at Noon, which certainly wasn’t unanimously praised. Director and co-writer Claire Denis has indicated that this is an interpretation of how she read the book, as a romantic story with a suspenseful undertone. That is White House too, but manages to be logical. stars at noon is approaching Fourth by Tommy Wiseau (again no laughs).

stars at noon it’s the kind of movie that a portion of the critics will poetically say is good, and only a small portion of the audience will agree. It’s certainly not about anything, but it’s told in such an incredibly clumsy way that it doesn’t deserve a high rating.