Claire Denis’ ‘Stars at Noon’ Is a Sexy, Dangerous Adventure

Stars at Noon will make you sweat. Not only does the Nicaraguan sun threaten to suffocate you, but stars Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn have a palpable, elusive chemistry.

Qualley’s Trish is a wandering journalist spending time in Central America as COVID restrictions loosen. She downs rum and tells people things like, “I’m from here and there and yonder” or “I wanted to know the exact dimensions of hell.” Desperate to get to Costa Rica, her boss wants nothing to do with her, and she is stranded, trading sex for cash in order to stay at a rundown motel. She is immediately drawn to Alwyn’s Daniel when they meet at a hotel bar, but they find themselves almost literally stuck together. The sweat won’t let their bodies separate.

Sex is the currency between Trish and Daniel as they try to leave the country. Other well-dressed men appear and take an interest in the equally handsome Daniel, but Denis doesn’t tell us much and leaves us in the shadows. Are these men CIA? Why are they interested in Daniel? Can Trish truly trust him, and can they get out of the country unscathed?

Based on the 1986 novel by Denis Johnson, Denis moves the action away from the Nicaraguan Revolution to when the pandemic was slowing down. Some people still wear masks and Trish will yank one out of her purse from time to time. The change reinforces the time when things were starting to go back to normal but it felt like we didn’t know what the protocols were. Everything was slowed down, and I don’t think any film since March of 2020 has captured that so effortlessly as Stars does.

With her dark hair curly and wild, Qualley delivers another captivating, slippery performance. Trish’s charm is her greatest asset, and she easily seduces with her eyes and that grin that makes you question whether or not you’re being play. She brings a neediness and desperation to the character but she only lets Daniel see it. Alwyn (taking over from Robert Pattinson) gives one of his most complex performances to date. His baby face obscured by a beard, his Daniel is soft-spoken but charismatic, his smooth accent almost cooled by a constant ring of cigarette smoke.

In the film’s most seductive scene, Trish and Daniel dance together on an empty dance floor bathed in blue light. They clutch to each other as if they are terrified to let each other ago, his hand on the back of her neck and her face buried in his chest. Stars at Noon is a mysterious thriller but Qualley and Alwyn make it ache with need.

Stars at Noon is in theaters now.