Watched Stars at Noon by Claire Denis.

A film where a political thriller sinks into heat, pauses, and endless sex, as if that were the only reliable way to keep it moving. The rhythm is viscous, and the atmosphere dense, almost hypnotic.

The heat itself, however, feels decorative — too neat, lacking that exhausting, sleep-depriving, airless state the film clearly counts on.

Joe Alwyn is unconvincing, as if he never quite understands why he’s there at all (easy to see why Pattinson had more important things to do). Margaret Qualley works hard to hold attention, but the script too often reduces everything to the bedroom, treating intimacy as a universal dramatic solution.

In the end, there is plenty of atmosphere and much less meaning, and any genuine sense of place or inner necessity is missing.