gemini-movie

Gemini

Gemini could be a lot funnier. It could be a lot more suspenseful. It could be creepier, sexier, more verbose. It instead settles for a bland storyline framed by neo-noir archetypes. Writer-director Aaron Katz is channeling the neon worlds of Nicholas Winding Refn without any of the fierce brutality, and winking at the eroticism of Ken Russell while never even marginally committing to it. The mystery involves a personal assistant named Jill (Lola Kirke), and the mega-famous movie star, Heather (Zoë Kravitz), she works for. Hanging around the two of them is Heather’s friend Tracy (Greta Lee), a dirtbag paparazzi (James Ransone), a bitter screenwriter (Nelson Franklin) and even more bitter ex-boyfriend (Reeve Carney). When a murder punctures Jill and Heather’s life, a detective (John Cho) arrives asking questions and nothing is as it seems.

Most of the movie involves Lola Kirke moving through Los Angeles in a hilariously conspicuous disguise, on the run from the police, trying to find how someone was shot five times by a gun that is technically owned by her. In movies like Mistress America and the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle, Kirke has shown the kind of put-upon air that would suggest she’s perfect as a comedy-noir protagonist, but writer-director Aaron Katz doesn’t seem to exploit that to its potential. The film’s best moments happen when it tries to be a comedy, but even those moments feel like an accident. The movie’s slick look and style supposes a filmmaker who has an innate sense of noir sensibility, with none of the fortitude for the complicated narratives. A synth-y score from Keegan DeWitt is fierce and spot-on, but most of the movie seems off balance, even as the performances are doing their best. Watch Katz’s previous film, Land Ho! (which he directed with Martha Stephens) to see him truly execute a tight balancing act between comedy and drama. Gemini stands as a curio, a well-made style piece that comes short on substance.

 

Written and Directed by Aaron Katz