NYFF Review: Stars at Noon

People haphazardly existing in a culture outside their own? A complicated, melodramatic
romance? Elegant yet deliberate pacing? Must be Claire Denis. The highly respected French
director’s second feature of 2022, following the similarly melodramatic Both Sides of the Blade,
harkens back to her work in films like White Material and her first feature, Chocolat, in which
the main characters are out of place in the heat of economic and/or political turmoil in
underdeveloped areas of the world.

In Stars at Noon, Denis updates the 1986 novel of the same name from the Nicaraguan
Revolution of its era to modern day, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. A stranded
American journalist, Trish (Margaret Qualley), who has had her passport stolen by a local
military leader, meets a mysterious English businessman, Daniel (Joe Alwyn). There’s an
apocalyptic quality lent to the film by its empty streets and strong military presence.

But much of the film’s sheer entertainment value is owed to Qualley, delivering her career-best
work so far as the playful, often drunk Trish, a woman screwed by various governments in such
a way that she has to laugh through her cynicism. It’s as if she’s regressed to a more careless
age because of the hand she’s been dealt. Qualley is nothing short of magnetic, and her
chemistry with Alwyn is at once sexy, strangely off, and dangerous. There’s not one point in the
film where their relationship feels safe or healthy, and yet it remains alluring.

Denis presents them both with her signature objectivity and restraint. We never quite get
either of their full story, yet not for the sake of the narrative’s pace, which is admittedly slow, especially as the film repeatedly seems on the verge of ending in its last 40 or so minutes. Still, part of Denis’ point is that these characters drag and prolong their story, fighting for a hopeless love in the face of the inevitable.

By the time Benny Safdie enters the picture toward the third act as a softspoken, shadowy
American consultant who knows the full story of the film up to that point, significantly upping
the tension with his arrival, the chemistry between Trish and Daniel has turned poisonous.
There is no confirmation in Qualley’s or Alwyn’s eyes that their love is even the end-all-be-all
romance they act as if it is. But in their circumstances, in which bureaucracy and a global crisis combine to create the feel of an apocalypse, what else is there worth fighting for?

Stars at Noon is a challenging film, though not always in the ways you want it to be. But the
strength of Denis’ style and direction are, at this stage in her career, undeniable. Even though
its two-hour-plus length can be trying, time may be kind to this one. Qualley ensures the film is
a beguiling watch all the way through, but with auteurs as beloved as Denis, initial reception
can always be a little presumptuous. Is Stars at Noon minor Denis? With such strengths already
present followed by a lengthy digestion period, likely not.