A young American journalist stranded in Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic. She meets a mysterious Englishman who seems like her best chance of getting out. She soon realizes that he may be in greater danger than she is. A film by Claire Denis.

A romantic thriller film based on a novel titled “THE STARS AT NOON” by Denis Johnson, first published in September 1986, telling a story about an unnamed American woman during the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1984.

The film follows Trish (Margaret Qualley), a young American woman. We don’t know who she really is, but it looks like she’s stranded in Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic. She often describes herself as a journalist, but we don’t know who she actually works for or the reason why she came here in the first place.

She sells her body to the second lieutenant Veraguas (Nick Romano) in exchange for money and basic necessities which are very difficult to find in a period of severe governmental instability. She wants to leave the country but she simply cannot. She was tricked to trade all her US dollars to Nicaraguan córdoba. Now she can’t buy plane ticket because they only accept US dollars, and her passport was also taken away.

She like to visit the InterContinental hotel, pretending to a guest to get complimentary drink and food. One night, she meets a mysterious Englishman named Daniel (Joe Alwyn), he introduces himself as some kind of a consultant for an oil company to invest in this country. But we don’t know if he’s telling the truth, Trish doesn’t seem to care about that anyway. Trish has sex with Daniel in exchange for 50 US dollars and a short nap in his air-conditioned hotel room.

The next day, Trish observes Daniel meeting with a man in the hotel’s restaurant where she sneaks in to get free buffet. She knows that man to be a Costa Rican cop (Organismo de Investigación Judicial – OIJ) but Daniel doesn’t seem to believe here. Again, we don’t know if Daniel really doesn’t know or he’s pretending. Trish takes Daniel to Mercado Oriental (The largest market in Central America) by a taxi to prove that the man he just met is a Costa Rican cop and will try to follow them. The slow chase scene in the pouring rain is quite beautiful to watch. She still doesn’t fully realize the situation that Daniel will soon become her biggest trouble.

STARS AT NOON, directed by French film director/screenwriter Claire Denis is not a typical romance thriller film. We receive very little detail about the entire plot. We don’t know what’s true about him/her or about anything. But that also makes this film as intriguing as it is. Margaret Qualley’s performance is magnificent.

STARS AT NOON was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or and had its world premiere on 25 May 2022 at Festival de Cannes. The film was the co-winner of the Grand Prix with another film titled “CLOSE” directed by Lukas Dhont. It has a limited theatrical release in the United States and on demand on 14 October by A24. The film is scheduled to be released in France on 3 May 2023.

*Grand Prix is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or.