The Grand Illusion

In the latest feature from acclaimed director Claire Denis, young American journalist Trish Johnson (Margaret Qualley) is stranded in present-day Nicaragua and falls for an enigmatic Englishman (Joe Alwyn) who seems like her best chance of escape. She soon realizes, though, that he may be in even greater danger than she is. Co-winner of the Grand Prix at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, this adaptation of Denis Johnson's 1986 novel is a contemporary thriller suffused with political intrigue and languid eroticism, moving entirely to the tactile rhythms of its actors, especially rising star Qualley, who gives a live-wire performance of fervid spontaneity and mercurial passion.

“Denis has crafted a film that syncs your heartbeat to its own intoxicating rhythms: a full-body immersion in uneasy pleasures.” Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

“Although Stars at Noon is set in Nicaragua during the very recent past, it’s another film by legendary director Claire Denis that seems to have been time-warped in from the 1970s or ‘80s, when tough, smart, languorous, handsomely produced, frankly sexual portraits of fascinating but often unlikable adults got made and seen more than occasionally, and played in art house theaters just big enough to envelop the viewer with images and sounds.” Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com