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Stars at Noon aims for steamy espionage and lands somewhere between geopolitical fanfic and unintentional satire. My take: if you’re gonna trash a country, at least learn something about it first.
#FilmCriticism #CentralAmerica #StarsAtNoon #CostaRica #Nicaragua #A24 #MargaretQualley #ClaireDenis #MovieReview #AntiImperialism #Geopolitics #CinemaFail #SpyThriller
https://ninetypercentcrapmoviereviews.wordpress.com/2022/10/31/stars-at-noon/

Stars at Noon (2022)

Stars at Noon is a lot like its heroine, Trish (Margaret Qualley): clueless, self-corrupted, and under the delusion that it has something meaningful to say. 

Early on, Trish — a sex worker who fancies herself a serious journalist — warns her latest john, the enigmatic British businessman (or is he?) Daniel (Joe Alwyn), that a Costa Rican cop from the OIJ is following him with murky, presumably nefarious intentions. This scene, like the rest of the movie, is held together only by ambiguity and alcohol. A brief cameo by John C. Reilly — literally videophoning it in — is the best part of the entire film, if only because he alone seems to see through Trish’s tantalizing looks and into her hollow, shallow little soul. 

The story is set in Nicaragua in the early 2020s (COVID masks abound), yet somehow features a Costa Rican police officer operating with impunity outside his jurisdiction. As a born-and-raised Costa Rican, let me clarify: the OIJ (Organismo de Investigación Judicial) is a real law enforcement body — part of Costa Rica’s Supreme Court — but there is absolutely no reason for one of its agents to be in Nicaragua unless he’s on vacation. And even that would be a stretch. 

Let me also disabuse you of the notion that a Costa Rican cop could wield any kind of official or unofficial power abroad, let alone swagger through Nicaragua as though he owns the place. If this were real life, Daniel Ortega would have that officer sent back in a diplomatic gift box with air holes poked in the top — faster than you can say Dennis Martínez. 

For a while, I thought Trish might be bullshitting Daniel — she’s drunk, and she’s full of shit most of the time anyway. But she turns out to be right. Not only is the OIJ guy real, he’s colluding with a CIA agent, and the film doubles down by having a Nicaraguan taxi driver call them “Costa Rican scumbags” and “American puppets.” But what they’re actually up to? Completely unclear. Even the conspirators don’t seem to know what their goal is, and neither do we. 

The filmmakers seem to be laboring under the bizarre impression that Costa Rica is some kind of U.S. intelligence outpost. I hate to burst that particular fantasy bubble, but the only thing the OIJ and the CIA have in common is a three-letter acronym. 

And speaking of murky intentions, I have no idea what this film is even trying to accomplish, other than slandering my home country. Movies like this — post-colonial noir thrillers with political aspirations — generally have the good sense to be set in the cocaine-happy 1980s, where their Cold War hangovers feel less anachronistic. Here, we get vague talk of CIA influence and geopolitical meddling — but no actual perspective, no commentary, and no grounding in either history or current events. 

To be clear: there’s a lot of bad shit going on in Nicaragua right now. But if you’re hoping to gain any insight from Stars at Noon, good luck. You’d be better off just reading a newswire. The film drops a vague reference to a past article Trish wrote about “murders and hangings,” but as Reilly’s character notes, you could’ve heard that on CNN. If the film feels like it knows nothing and says nothing, it’s because it does know nothing. And it certainly doesn’t care to learn. 

Like The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Stars at Noon is equal parts ignorant and stultifying. It’s as uninformed about the Central American region as it is uninterested in the Nicaraguan people. Their suffering is mere backdrop for the problems of two bland white outsiders whose goals amount to nothing more than escaping the country without consequence — without looking back, and without a single moment’s thought for those left behind. 

And no, Ortega is never mentioned by name. 

Did no one involved in this production stop to wonder why so many Nicaraguans have emigrated to Costa Rica and continue to do so in huge numbers? Here’s a clue: it’s not because of the gallo pinto. 

Works Cited 

Stars at Noon. Directed by Claire Denis, performances by Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, and John C. Reilly, A24, 2022. 

“Nicaragua 2024.” Human Rights Watch, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua. 

Related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P0NxHhATII&pp=ygUVc3RhcnMgYXQgbm9vbiB0cmFpbGVy

#claireDenis #movieReview #starsAtNoon

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https://album.link/fr/i/1724056819

Mein siebter Claire Denis, ein siebtes Mal faszinierende Filmkunst: STARS AT NOON (2022) reiht sich ein in Denis' gewohnt melancholische Auseinandersetzungen mit kolonialen Vergangenheiten und neokolonialistischen Verbrechen.

🔗 https://letterboxd.com/naaarf/film/stars-at-noon/

#StarsAtNoon #ClaireDenis #MargaretQualley #JoeAlwyn #BennySafdie

#LasEstrellasAlMediodía #StarsAtNoon es un drama romántico sensual y sugestivo de Claire Denis que está ambientado en una Nicaragua pandémica y casi distópica. Puede verse en distintas plataformas.

Crítica de @danielfarriol:

https://noescinetodoloquereluce.com/2023/07/critica-review-estrellas-mediodia-stars-at-noon-pelicula.html

This movie is a lot like its heroine; a clueless, self-corrupted whore with delusions of respectability.
#StarsatNoon #MovieReview #Drama #Thriller
https://ninetypercentcrapmoviereviews.wordpress.com/2022/10/31/stars-at-noon/

@matthewcvaughan #StarsatNoon.

Liked Claire Denis' STARS AT NOON very much; a languid neo-noir that explores the (personal) limits & (geopolitical) limitlessness of the power of whiteness, through the romance of two entitled and lonely 'expats' in pandemic-struck Nicaragua desperate to leverage that power for survival and companionship.

#Film #StarsAtNoon