Stars at Noon, plenty of skin in lacklustre thriller

Director Claire Denis indulges her evident interest in sexual scenes, with Margaret Qualley, who survives by prostituting herself, frequently appearing naked.

Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn in Stars at Noon

Stars at Noon (MA15+)
In cinemas
★★★

Hard on the heels of her touchingly intimate French-language drama Both Sides of the Blade, Claire Denis, whose output is very variable, has made Stars at Noon, adapted from a novel by Denis Johnson originally published in 1984.

The setting is Nicaragua, but it was shot in Panama, and though it contains plenty of the erotic scenes for which this director is well known, it’s a bit of a departure with its turbulent Central American setting and its tale of a rather foolish young woman caught up in violence and espionage.

One of the problems here is that the very long film – which is a French production, spoken in English and Spanish – is surprisingly reluctant to describe the background of its heroine, Trish Johnson (Margaret Qualley, daughter of Andie MacDowell).

Trish claims to be a journalist visiting Nicaragua, but when she succeeds in connecting a Zoom call with her prickly editor – John C. Reilly in a brief, rather hysterical, cameo – he makes it clear that not only does he not consider her a journalist but that he wants nothing more to do with her. Staying at a rundown hotel, Trish has been surviving by prostituting herself. She has been sexually involved with a local cop (Danny Ramirez) who has confiscated her passport and who seems to be tiring of her.

Shortly after having sex with the cop, Trish encounters Daniel DeHaven (Joe Alwyn), an Englishman, in a bar. Dressed in a white tropical suit, Daniel says he works for an international oil company and he pays her $US50 for sex. In no time at all Trish is besotted with this stranger, but is Daniel telling the truth about himself? And where does a CIA agent (Benny Safdie) come into the picture?

For a while – a rather long while – Denis explores the hothouse atmosphere of the city of Managua, where soldiers armed with automatic weapons can be seen on every corner and where, seemingly, nobody can be trusted.

But because we know so little about Trish, or for that matter Daniel, and because Denis takes so long to reveal nothing much, the film gets rather tedious (at almost two hours and 20 minutes it seriously overstays its welcome) and even the ultimate dash for the border in a stolen car is languidly handled.

Denis, who wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Lea Mysius and Andrew Litvack, indulges her evident interest in sexual scenes, with Qualley and Alwyn frequently appearing naked. But if the film is strong on its sensuality, it fails to deliver as a satisfactory thriller, despite sharing the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes film festival.

On the plus side, Eric Gautier’s location photography, often taking place in torrential rain, is impressive, as is the jazzy music score by Tindersticks. The leading actors, who give it their all, do their best with the very sketchy characters they’re given.

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The Road Dance (M)
In cinemas
★★★

Writer-director Richie Adams’s The Road Dance is a gloomy tale set on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides in 1916 and based on a book by John MacKay. Kirsty McLeod (Hermione Corfield) lives with her mother, Mairi (Morven Christie), and younger sister, Annie (Ali Fumio Whitney), in a small stone cottage in the village; her father – seen playing with her on the beach in the opening scene, which is set in 1904 – is dead.

Kirsty loves Murdo (Will Fletcher), a local youth, and plans to immigrate with him to America, but he and the other local youths are conscripted to fight in France.

On the night before the men leave there’s a “road dance” during which, in the dark, Kirsty is attacked and raped by an unseen assailant. Traumatised, with a head wound, she spends the night at the home of Dr Maclean (Mark Gatiss), a kindly divorced man who formerly had a practice in London.

She discovers that she’s pregnant but hides the fact from her mother and sister. Then news comes that Murdo has been killed in France.

The bleak settings of much of the film provide a suitable backdrop for a tale of innocence despoiled (inspired by true events, an opening title claims). The film is certainly well acted, but it’s overlong and the epilogue, which is set in New York, could well have been dispensed with.

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Moja Vesna (M)
Limited release in cinemas
★★★½

Moja Vesna is a very small but most appealing film about a Slovenian family living in an Australian city. The wife of Milos (Gregor Bakovic) has recently died; he speaks almost no English. His elder daughter, Vesna (Mackenzie Mazur), is pregnant, though there is no man in sight.

It’s left to 10-year-old Moja (Loti Kovavic) to hold the family together. This child, wise beyond her years, sets out to acquire all the things the new baby will need; in the course of her activities she encounters Miranda (Claudia Karvan), the single mother of a daughter the same age as Moja – Miranda becomes a kind of surrogate mother for the girl.

Nothing very much happens in the film; the baby is born and that’s about it (though the cherished wooden chair on which the late wife/mother usually sat becomes the focus of a key plot point). The film’s principle strength is the luminous performance of young Kovavic as Moja; the intelligent, resourceful child is more mature than her sister or her father, and you can read volumes into her facial expressions. It’s a compelling performance from the young actor. Photographed in the old-fashioned pre-wide-screen 3 x 4 ratio, the film is simple but, in its small way, quite memorable.

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Neptune Frost (M)
Limited release in cinemas
★★★½

Neptune Frost is a most unusual film. It was made in Rwanda, a country not known for its film production, and it’s a sort of revolutionary musical fantasy. It’s difficult to penetrate, but visually and aurally – there’s a great music score – it’s consistently impressive.

The plot, such as it is, is set in an alternative African country where a heavy-handed government, The Authority, is repressing the citizens. The focus is on Neptune, a sexually ambivalent character who worked in a mine but who joins up with militants living in a jungle hide-out. Lines like “I was born in my 23rd year” and “I am travelling from Death to other passageways” don’t make accessing the film, which was co-directed and written by Saul Williams, an American, any easier to grasp.

Themes tackled are neo-colonialism, racism, sexism, modern technology (F… Mr Google is the title of one song) and the world order. The film is certainly different, but it’s also strangely gripping even if not particularly likeable or approachable. Anisia Uzeyman co-directed with Williams.

At the recent Melbourne International Film Festival Neptune Frost was selected by a jury to win the inaugural Bright Horizons Award – a $140,000 cash prize.